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AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


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MACMILLAN & CoO., LimitepD 
LONDON - BOMBAY - CALCUTTA 
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AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 
THEIR ARCHITECTURAL STYLE - THEIR 
ENVIRONMENT - THEIR CHARACTERISTICS 
BY AUGUSTA OWEN PATTERSON 
weer DITOR OF TOWN & COUNTRY 
WITH HALFTONE PELCUSTRATIONS 


THE MACMILLAN COMPANY PUBLISHERS 
NEW YORK MCMXXIV 


COPYRIGHT, 1924, BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. 
SET UP AND PRINTED. PUBLISHED, NOVEMBER, 1924. 


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PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BY J. J. LITTLE & IVES 


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CONIVGI EIDEMQVE AMICO 
QVI ME DE STVDIO OPERAQVE MEA DISSERENTEM 
ET BENIGNA PATIENTIA AVDIVIT 
ET CVM OMNI LEPORE AC SCIENTIA ADIVVIT 
HVNC PRIMVM LIBRVM 


AVGVSTA 


PREFACE 


Tuas is a book rather on esthetics than on architecture. 

There are innumerable books on architecture qua architecture. The trouble 
with most of them, from the layman’s point of view, is their abandonment to 
technicality; their authors fail to see the forest because of their special interest 
in some particular tree. This book is an attempt to orientate the forest as a 
whole, to explain why it has assumed certain external forms, color, and atmosphere 
—and also what those forms are. | 

As recently as Shakspere, the fork was, to Englishmen, an effeminate Italian 
luxury. To-day it is unthinkable that any gently-bred person put his knife in his 
mouth; Shakspere probably, Henry VIII certainly, used no other tool. The reason 
for the present inhibition is entirely esthetic. 

The first years of this century have seen significant changes in architectural 
style in American homes, changes almost as significant, mentally, as the 
abandonment of the knife as a food conveyor. So far as I am aware, there has, 
before this, been published no book in the English language definitely striving 
to codify those changes and to explain what is the mental background back of 
our best contemporaneous architectural practice. Also to explain, as far as things 
esthetic are ever explainable, why this changed background has been so generally 
accepted by owners. For the reasons are, essentially, esthetic. 

To those owners, architects, and photographers whose unending courtesy 
and unwearying patience have made this book possible I give thanks. To my 
husband, the most amusing conversationalist I know, I acknowledge indebtedness 
for encouragement and the use of his sense of historical perspective as a whetstone 
upon which to accentuate my own ideas. 


I owe a special expression of gratitude to the following architects, without 


Paix 


PREFACE 


whose sympathy, encouragement and codperation this book would have been im- 
possible: Messrs. Walker & Gillette, Delano & Aldrich, John Russell Pope, Thomas 
Hastings, Wilson Eyre, and Cross & Cross. Also to Mrs. Mattie Edwards Hewitt 
and Mr. John Wallace Gillies for the loan of their photographs. Also to Mr. H. J. 
Whigham, Editor, and Mr. Franklin Coe, Publisher, for the use of certain plates 
from Town & Country Magazine, of which I have the privilege of being Art Editor. 
Also to Mr. Nelson G. McCrea, Anthon Professor of Latin at Columbia University, 
who has been kind enough to contribute the Latinity of the dedication. 

Architectural and photographic credit has been given under each illustration, 
as is the modern practice in reproduction of architectural work. For this reason 
a detailed, name by name, acknowledgment is not made here. 

AucusTta OwEN PATTERSON 
New York 
November, 1924. 


(exe 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER ONE ae 
Tue HisroricaL BACKGROUND eu ee ee ee i It eee 1 


CHAPTER Two 
rtm es eeicC PROBLEM... 5 -« <i) 48s et tt et 20 


CHAPTER THREE 
Peete Ree LEFINITIONS < <9. .«) «+» «© “« w «© «© ©  « 34 


CHAPTER Four 
TELE CUS eS en 5 


CHAPTER FIvE 
feerernerisn MANNeER—-PaRT ONE . . . . + « «© © © © © «© 84 


CHAPTER SIx 
etemeMCLISHMVLANNER—-PART TWO . . =. «© << s « «© « « « « « 108 


CHAPTER SEVEN 
EMRE MERIVATIVEs. 9c 0% 200 Sea ee ee eee 188 


CHAPTER EIGHT 
EMER CTIEST VER. oS el eee rivet on coe Ue hes Us Weiss’ eee, pee wo, LOF 


CHAPTER NINE 
Meee PARR THAN PICTURESQUE «=... % os © = 4s) =) os soe. ~ «, 190 


CHAPTER TEN 
mele DERN PICTURESQUE ©... = sow) wep 0 ee ee es ee eeO 


CHAPTER ELEVEN 
THE MEDITERRANEAN MopEL. . . Se A ee Se ey ee a ey 


[xi] 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER TWELVE 
THE GARDEN—ParT ONE . 


CHAPTER THIRTEEN 
THE GARDEN—ParT Two . 


CHAPTER FOURTEEN 
Farm Groups AND INCIDENTAL BUILDINGS 


CHAPTER FIFTEEN 
THe Giry HOUSE 9 eee 


CHAPTER SIXTEEN 
THE DECORATIVE Room 


[ xii J 


PAGE 


284 


306 


336 


350 


386 


ARCHITECTS AND LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS WHOSE WORK IS 
ILLUSTRATED IN THIS BOOK 


DAVID ADLER, ARCHITECT, CHICAGO 
Country residence of Mr. Richard T. Crane, Jekyll Island, Ga. . . Page 257 


ALLEN & COLLENS, ARCHITECTS, BOSTON 
City residence of Mr. Arthur Curtiss James, New York . Pages 122, 382, 383 


LEWIS COLT ALBRO, ARCHITECT, NEW YORK 
Country residence of Mr. George Arents, Jr., Rye, N.Y. . . . . Page214 
Farm group on estate of Dr. Ernest Fahnestock, Cold Spring, N. Y. . Page 346 


GROSVENOR ATTERBURY & STOWE PHELPS, ARCHITECTS, NEW YORK 


Farm group on estate of Mr. Arthur Curtiss James, Newport, R. I. 
Pages 343, 344, 345 
DONN BARBER, ARCHITECT, NEW YORK 
Country residence of Mr. Charles Smithers, White Plains, N. Y. 
Pages 72, 73, 74, 75 
Garden on estate of Mrs. Waldron Williams, Rye, N.Y. . . . . Page 301 


WILLIAM HARMON BEERS, ARCHITECT, NEW YORK 


Country residence of Mr. George De Forest Lord, Woodmere, L. I. 
Pages 63, 78, 79 
BELLOWS & ALDRICH, ARCHITECTS, BOSTON 


Country residence of Mr. Frederick G. Hall, Gloucester, Mass. 
Pages 32, 212, 213 
ALBERT JOSEPH BODKER, ARCHITECT, NEW YORK 


City residence of Mr. Oakleigh Thorne, New York. . . . . . Page370 


WELLES BOSWORTH, LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT, NEW YORK 


Gardens on estate of Mr. John D. Rockefeller, Pocantico Hills, N. Y. 
Pages 295, 296, 322, 323 
Gardens on estate of Mr. Samuel Untermyer, Yonkers, N. Y. Pages 311, 330, 331 


CARRERE & HASTIN GS, ARCHITECTS, NEW YORK 
Gardens on estate of Mr. C. Ledyard Blair, Peapack, N. J. . Pages 303, 329 


[ xii | 


DiS sO Rar Usa RAs aN 


PAUL CHALFIN AND F. BURRALL HOFFMAN, JR., ARCHITECTS, NEW YORK 


Country residence of Mr. James Deering, Miami, Fla. 
Pages 55, 264, 265, 266, 267, 268, 269, 270, 271, 339, 395 


MARION C. COFFIN, LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT, NEW YORK 
Gardens on estate of Mr. Charles H. Sabin, Southampton, L. I. 
Pages 231, 237, 240 
CROSS & CROSS, ARCHITECTS, NEW YORK 3 
Country residence at Far Hills, N.J. . . . Pages 83, 106, 107, 234, 294 


Country residence of Mr. Charles H. Sabin, Southampton, L. I. 
Pages 33, 231, 236, 237, 238, 239, 240, 241, 242, 243, 244, 245, 328, 342, 393 


DELANO & ALDRICH, ARCHITECTS, NEW YORK 
Country residence of Mr. Robert S. Brewster, Mt. Kisco, N. Y. 
Pages 304, 334, 335 
Country residence of Mr. James A. Burden, Syosset, L. I. 
Pages 91, 96, 97, 98, 99, 116, 120 
Country residence of Mr. William B. Osgood Field, Lenox, Mass. Pages 43, 112 


Country residence of Mr. Otto H. Kahn, Cold Spring Harbor, L. I. 
Pages 17, 31, 174, 175, 178, 179, 180, 293, 341 


Country residence of Mr. Victor Morawitz, Woodbury, L.I. . . . Page 147 
City residence on Park Avenue, New York . . . . . .. . Page372 
Country residence of the Misses Parsons, Lenox, Mass.. . . Pages 230, 235 


City residence of Mrs. Willard D. Straight, New York 
Pages 104, 105, 373, 374, 397 


Studio of Mrs. Harry Payne Whitney, Roslyn, L. I. . . Pages 9, 146, 398 
Country residence of Mr. Egerton L. Winthrop, Syosset, L. I. Pages 27, 188, 189 


Country residence of Mr. Bertram G. Work, Oyster Bay, L. I. 
Pages 156, 157, 314, 392 


DE SUAREZ & HATTON, ARCHITECTS, NEW YORK 
City residence of Mrs. Alice McLean, New York Pages 160, 161, 162, 360, 361 


W. F. DOMINICK, ARCHITECT, NEW YORK 
City residence of Mr. Henry Lorillard Cammann, New York . . . Page 353 


DUHRING, OKIE & ZIEGLER, ARCHITECTS, PHILADELPHIA 
Country residence of Mr. Harry Waln Harrison, Devon, Pa. . . . Page 64 


WILSON EYRE & McILVAINE, ARCHITECTS, PHILADELPHIA 


Country residence of Mr. Walter M. Jeffords, Media, Pa. 
Pages 196, 201, 202, 203, 204, 205 


Country residence of Mr. P. W. Roberts, Villa Nova, Pa.. . . . Page 144 


[ xiv ] 


ate Oe lei USP RATT LON:S 


JAMES L. GREENLEAF, LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT, NEW YORK 
Gardens on estate of Mr. George Dupont Pratt, Glen Cove, L. I.  . . Page 321 


THOMAS HASTINGS, ARCHITECT, NEW YORK 
Country residence of Mr. Thomas Hastings, Old Westbury, L. I. Pages 248, 249 


ARTHUR HEUN, ARCHITECT, CHICAGO 


Country residence of Mr. J. Ogden Armour, Lake Forest, Ill. . Pages 18, 255 
HARWOOD HEWITT, ARCHITECT, CALIFORNIA 

Country residence of Mr. W. P. Hanson, Pasadena, Cal. . . . . Page 48 
HISS & WEEKES, ARCHITECTS, NEW YORK 

Gardens on estate of Mr. Henry R. Rea, Sewickley, Pa. . . . . Page 293 
F. BURRALL HOFFMAN, JR., ARCHITECT, NEW YORK 

Country residence of Mr. Joseph Riter, Palm Beach, Fla. . . . . Page 280 

Country residence of Mrs. Charles Cary Rumsey, Wheatley Hills, L. I. 

Page 251 


MYRON HUNT & ELMER GRAY, ARCHITECTS, CALIFORNIA 
Country residence of Mr. E. M. Taylor, Altadena, Cal. . . . . Page 258 


HARRY CREIGHTON INGALLS AND F. BURRALL HOFFMAN, JR., ARCHI- 
TECTS, NEW YORK 


Country residence of Mr. Jonathan Godfrey, Bridgeport, Conn. . Pages 76, 77 


HARRY ALLAN JACOBS, ARCHITECT, NEW YORK 
Country residence of Mr. Joseph Larocque, Bernardsville, N. J. . Pages 197, 218 


REGINALD D. JOHNSON, ARCHITECT, CHICAGO 
Country residence of Mr. J. P. Jefferson, Montecito, Cal. . . Pages 263, 315 


CHARLES BARTON KEEN, ARCHITECT, PHILADELPHIA 
Country residence of Mr. Charles I. Corby, Garrett Park, Md. . Pages 49,116 
Country residence of Mr. C. Hartman Kuhn, Bryn Mawr, Pa. . . . Page 53 


CHARLES WELLFORD LEAVITT, LANDSCAPE ENGINEER, NEW YORK 
Gardens on estate of Mr. Charles M. Schwab, Loretto, Pa. 
Pages 324, 325, 326, 327 
Gardens on estate of Mr. Samuel Untermyer, Yonkers, N. Y. 
Pages 311, 330, 331 
GUY LOWELL, ARCHITECT, NEW YORK 
Country residence of Mr. Guernsey Curran, Oyster Bay, L.I.. . . Page 42 
City residence of Mrs. William Hayward, New York Pages 118, 369, 390, 391 


L xv ] 


DeSe Oona US has LOWNES 


H. VAN BUREN MAGONIGLE, ARCHITECT, NEW YORK 


City residence of Mr. William McNair, New York . . . Pages 356, 371 

Country residence at Port Washington, L. I. . . . . Pages 44, 145, 158 
MARSTON & VAN PELT, ARCHITECTS, CALIFORNIA 

Country residence of Mr. W. T. Jefferson, Pasadena, Cal. . . . . Page 260 

Country residence of Mr. John Henry Meyer, Pasadena, Cal. . . Page 261 
McCLURE & HARPER, ARCHITECTS 

Country residence of Mr. John J. Raskob, Claymont, Del... . . . Page 256 
McKIM, MEAD & WHITE, ARCHITECTS, NEW YORK 

City residence of Mr. Edward T. Blair, Chicago . . . . Pages 163, 366 

City residence of Mrs. John Innes Kane, New York . . . .  . Page 367 


MELLOR, MEIGS & HOWE, ARCHITECTS, PHILADELPHIA 
Gardens on estate of Mr. R. T. McCracken, Germantown, Pa. . . . Page 310 


ADDISON MIZNER, ARCHITECT, PALM BEACH 
Country residence of Mr. Willey Lyon Kingsley, Palm Peach, Fla. 
Pages 273, 282 
Country residence of Mr. Charles A. Munn, Palm Beach, Fla. 
Pages 272, 281, 283 
Country residence of Mr. John S. Phipps, Palm Beach, Fla. . Pages 274, 275 


BENJAMIN W. MORRIS, ARCHITECT, NEW YORK 
Country residence of Mr. Joseph Clark Baldwin, Mt. Kisco, N. Y. Pages 159, 333 


MURPHY & DANA, ARCHITECTS, NEW YORK 
Farm group on estate of Mr. Charles M. Schwab, Loretto, Pa. 
Pages 347, 348, 349 
City residence of Dr. sae Stillman and Mr. J oP P. Chamberlain, New 


OTK ecg ee MRE pis DY > ee Pages 378, 379 
FRANK EATON NEWMAN, ARCHITECT, NEW YORK 
Country residence of Mr. Robert Appleton, East Hampton, L.I. . . Page 232 


JAMES W. O’CONNOR, ARCHITECT, NEW YORK 
Country residence of Mr. L. H. Sherman, Lakeville, L. I. . . . . Page 51 


PEABODY, WILSON & BROWN, ARCHITECTS, NEW YORK 
Country residence of Mr. Courtlandt D. Barnes, Manhasset, L.I.. . Page 233 
Country residence of Mr. Lathrop Brown, St. James, L. I. 
Pages 117, 125, 1267127 


Eeesel 


Pee ee US RAC LOINS 


Country residence of Mr. Devereux Milburn, Westbury, L.I.. . . Page 47 
Country residence of Mr. Reeve Schley, Far Hills, N.J. . Pages 62, 80, 81, 82 


CHARLES A. PLATT, ARCHITECT, NEW YORK 
Swimming pool on estate of Mr. Ralph Pulitzer, Manhasset, L.I. . . Page 332 


JOHN RUSSELL POPE, ARCHITECT, NEW YORK 
Country residence of Mr. Robert L. Bacon, Westbury, L. I. . Pages 246, 247 
Gardens on estate of Mrs. M.S. Burrill, Jericho, L.I.. . . . Page 302 


Country residence of Mrs. Guy Fairfax Cary, Jericho, L. I. 
Frontispiece, Pages 100, 101, 102, 103, 289, 299 


Country residence of Mrs. Robert J. Collier, Wickatunk, N. J. 
Pages 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71 
Country residence of Mr. Stuart Duncan, Newport, R. I. 
Pages 200, 219, 220, 221 
Country residence of Mr. Marshall Field, Lloyd’s Harbor, L. I. 
Pages 111, 136, 137 


Country residence of Mr. James Swan Frick, Baltimore Pages 28, 94, 95, 119 
Country residence of Mr. Charles A. Gould, Greenlawn, L.I. . . . Page 181 


Country residence of Mr. Allan S. Lehman, Tarrytown, N. Y. 
Pages 54, 198, 215, 216, 217 


City residence of Mr. John R. McLean, Washington, D.C.. . . . Page 385 
Country residence of Mr. Ogden L. Mills, Westbury, L.I.. . . Pages 92,93 
Country residence of Mr. George Hewitt Myers, Watch Hill, R.I.. . Page 117 
Country residence of Mr. Andrew Varick Stout, Red Bank, N. J. Pages 114, 128 
Country residence of Mr. Moses Taylor, Newport, R. I. . . . . Page173 


RICHARDSON, BAROTT & RICHARDSON, ARCHITECTS, BOSTON | 
Country residence of Mr. Frederic L. W. Richardson, Charles River, Mass. 


Pages 210, 211 
J. ARMSTRONG STENHOUSE, ARCHITECT, NEW YORK 
City residence of Mr. Otto H. Kahn, New York . Pages 362, 363, 364, 365 
FREDERICK STERNER, ARCHITECT, NEW YORK 
City residence of Mr. Charles Mather MacNeill, New York . . . Page 133 
HORACE TRAUMBAUER, ARCHITECT, PHILADELPHIA 
Country residence of Mrs. A. Hamilton Rice, Newport, R. I. . Pages 45, 340 


TREANOR & FATIO, ARCHITECTS, NEW YORK 
City residence of Mr. I. Townsend Burden, New York . . Pages 184,185 


Pani 


Sa OFLA SERA EON 


TROWBRIDGE & ACKERMAN, ARCHITECTS, NEW YORK 
Country residence of Mr. Truman H. Newberry, Detroit, Mich. 
Pages 113, 134, 314 


Country residence of Mr. George D. Pratt, Glen Cove,L.I.. . Pages 46, 321 
TROWBRIDGE & LIVINGSTON, ARCHITECTS, NEW YORK 

City residence of Mrs. Henry Phipps, New York . . . Pages 135, 177, 368 

City residence of Mr. John S. Rogers, New York . . . . Pages 182, 183 


VISSCHER & BURLEY, ARCHITECTS, NEW YORK 
Country residence of Mr. F. W. Sewell, Pasadena, Cal. . Pages 276, 277, 278 


WARREN & CLARK, ARCHITECTS, NEW YORK 


Cottage at Jericho, L. TJ.  . ~  . . . =. | 5 Sees 
WALKER & GILLETTE, ARCHITECTS, NEW YORK 

Country residence of Mr. Sherwood Aldrich, Glen Cove, L.I.. . . Page 65 

Boudoir in the French manner. . . eG Pavell ee 


Country residence of Mr. William R. Coe, Oyster Bay, L. I. 
Pages 206, 207, 208, 209, 305, 399 
Country residence of Mrs. H. P. Davison, Glen Cove, L. I. 
Pages 29, 129, 130, 131, 132 


City residence of Mrs. L. C. Hanna, Cleveland. . . Pages 52, 187, 394, 396 
City residence of Mr. Harvey Dow Gibson, New York. . . . . Page376 
Country residence of Mr. James Norman Hill, Glen Head, L. I. Pages 115, 124 
Country residence of Mr. Francis L. Hine, Glen Cove, L.I. . . . Page 50 


City residence of Mr. Thomas Lamont, New York 
Pages 121, 222, 223, 224, 225, 380, 381 
City residence of Mr. Charles E. Mitchell, New York . . . . . Page 354 
Country residence of Mr. H. H. Rogers, Southampton, L. I. 
Pages 30, 148, 149, 150, 151, 152, 153 
City residence of Mr. Newell W. Tilton, New York . . . . . Page 384 
City residence of Mr. A. Stewart Walker, New York . . . Pages 355,375 


JOHN T. WINDRIM, ARCHITECT, PHILADELPHIA | 
Country residence of Mr. Nicholas F. Brady, Roslyn, L.I. . Pages 195, 297 


ARCHITECTS NOT GIVEN 
Country residence of Mrs. Anne Archbold, Bar Harbor, Me. . Pages 154, 155 


Country residence of Mrs. O. H. P. Belmont, Sands Point, L.I. . . Page 15 
Country residence of Mr. George P. Brett, Fairfield, Conn. 

Pages 10, 61, 298, 300 
Country residence of Mr. George Edward Kent, Jericho, L.I.. . . Page 14 


[ xvi ] 


Gos heat US RACE TONS 


Garden on estate of Dr. James Henry Lancashire, Manchester-by-the-Sea, 


IV o3s eer men eee er ROR. eon ee ogee oS, Page 292, 
Country residence of Mr. Clarence H. Mackay, Roslyn, L. I. . . . Page 16 
Country residence of Mrs. Edith Rockefeller McCormick, Lake Forest, III. 
Page 19 
Maisonette of Mr. J. Kearsley Mitchell, New York . . . .  . Page 352 
Cottage on estate of Mrs. John J. Mitchell, Jr., Montecito Valley, Cal. 
Page 259 
Country residence of Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan, Glen Cove, L. I. . . Page 13 
Country residence of Mr. J. 5S. Phipps, Westbury, L.I. . . . . Page 12 
Tennis Court of Mr. Harold Irving Pratt, Glen Cove, L.I.. . Pages 290, 291 
Country residence of Mrs. Whitelaw Reid, Purchase, N. Y. . . . Page 11 
City residence of Mrs. William K. Vanderbilt, New York. . . . Page 377 
ARTISTS AND DECORATORS WHOSE WORK IS 
ILLUSTRATED IN THIS BOOK 
ROBERT W. CHANLER 
ee re ech Bk. at ys Seay “4 Page-308 
reer ee fe Ge ee he hw US Pages 398, 399 
HENRI CRENIER 
iin mercurese ews ea sf a ers jaeid tere Page S25 
HOWARD CUSHING 
Rigo a Se see Ol nt re Bee eee Page 397 
HUNT DIEDERICH 
er ee Ws ep et Gee aot et gw eens Page 199 
are eee a eee ae Ih Pages 308,309 
JOHN GREGORY 
Bre eT ome ke ee nits - eee eee iets eae LO 
GARDNER HALE 
Pe see ee es ea a re Ne eee ee ee 392 
FREDERICK MacMONNIES 
mle bacchante = 9) 28: Cae ee eee Lave oLo 


fexixe! 


lab Sc lee OP ii Uo ie Rev sie LLOUNes 


PAUL MANSHIP 


PE LDGREL UNECE any gaaek Mee cr) oie yada. aren) & eee me rn a ene 
~“Hercules’-—oun Dial’. 4. ..-, ©. « «+. « % “) Pagesaliajen 
Fountain 3s re = 8a, | ge lca ict amt er WZ oh Ace ne ee 


EDWARD McCARTAN 
“The Spirit of the Woods*". =. 4 ia a Re 


MRS. M. S$. MUCHMORE, DECORATOR 
Country residence of Mr. Wellington Morse, Pasadena, Cal. . Pages 262, 279 


ARTHUR S. VERNAY 
Interior decorations... .. |. §.) 4. .° ..°. 0 4 Pages es ae 


CLAGGETT WILSON 
Murals® S.-Y ee ee ee 


GERTRUDE VANDERBILT WHITNEY 
Garden Figures. . . . +s 6 fe ss) rr 


SAMUEL YELLIN 
Ornamental ironwork . . . . . . . «. #£4«4\PagesSIZS303 gee 


[ xx ] 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


CHAPTER ONE 


PILE HiStORITGAL BACKGROUND 


To understand a change, one has to know its historic antecedents; where- 
fore let us start this book by a consideration of the architectural history of the 
United States in the nineteenth century, the historic background of the con- 
temporary architectural scene. 

For fear that it may slip the attention, let me point out that we were a 
British colony until 1776. That is a fact in our cultural life that is sometimes 
forgotten; it is only since, say, the Chicago Fire, that we have been subjected to 
methods of thought that were not North European crystallizing along British 
molds. The wave of Danube and Mediterranean immigration began, roughly, 
about that time. 

Architecture is perhaps the finest of the fine arts; it takes some time for 
architectural consciousness to develop. It was nearly a thousand years after the 
so-called fall of Rome before our own Nordic ancestors perfected the style we 
now call Gothic. So it is no matter for wonder that the American Colonial per- 
sisted as the dominant style in American domestic architecture until well along 
into the nineteenth century, say, about during the first third; and that we accepted 
its forms without attempts to change. American Colonial is this country’s one 
real contribution to the present gallery of architectural styles. As will be pointed 
out later, in due place, it is a logical development of the contemporaneous British 
manner, translated into local materials and adapted to local social habit. It left 
behind some splendid examples, both in city and country, and had sufficient vitality 


to persist, though not in favour, and manifesting itself in debased forms, all through 


Fake 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


the architectural Dark Ages that followed. It has become one of the accepted 
norms of to-day; and many modern renderings in that method are illustrated in 
the succeeding pages. 

The Jacksonian era approximately marks the loss of the Colonial impulse in 
architecture and our first efforts towards the development of styles of our own. 
We succeeded in ceasing to be Colonial; though provincial is perhaps the kindest 
adjective one may use for the stylistic swamp into which we plunged only to 
emerge at the close of the century. Incidentally these era-limits are not to be taken 
with too much chronological rigidity. Owing to the analogy of geography, the 
historian has to assign definite transition moments, although to do so’ is to be 
about as accurate as to chart a thunder cloud. Anybody, however, who wants 
all the qualifying phrases and clauses, all the interlockings, the earliest symptoms 
and the latest survivals, of a movement, can find them annotated in any and every 
treatise on architecture. 

At about the period, then, of the consulship of General Jackson, we began 
to feel our mental oats; to be “fresh,” in the old, New England, slang sense of the 
word. It was a normal, healthy thing to be, in practically everything but archi- 
tecture. Initially we followed the course of architectural thought as it was pro- 
ceeding in the British Isles, though our line of march, from being at first fairly 
parallel, became later a constantly diverging tangent. In Great Britain, Queen 
Victoria entered upon her reign with two main architectural streams influencing 
building, both “revivals,” one of the Greco-Roman classic, one of alleged Gothic. 
Victorian Gothic is best seen in Barry’s Houses of Parliament in London. If that 
is the sort of thing you like, why, that is the sort of thing you like; I may revisit 
London some day and, for fear of being torn to pieces by an infuriated populace, 
shall refrain from comment. The classic movement started in the Greek revival 
and ended by returning to the usual Renaissance sort of thing to be seen in British 
Government office buildings with which we are familiar. About the end of the 
century they reached the conclusion in Great Britain that Gothic for ecclesiastic, 
Renaissance for official, public, and semi-public buildings—and neither for domes- 
tic architecture was about correct. We passed through somewhat the same mental 


process, though the details are sadly interesting. 


[2] 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


We may say that the conscious architecture of the first half of the last two- 
thirds of the nineteenth century consisted in an effort to compress all architectural 
forms into either classic or Gothic formule. The Gothic urge gave us some 
moderately good churches, and some very distressing houses, executed both in stone 
and wood, which still rear their peaked roofs all through the Atlantic littoral and 
adjacent northern states. The classic movement in its Greek phase is to be seen, 
in domestic architecture, in those hugely pillared houses which look like a country 
carpenter's honest effort to house a family in a clapboarded Parthenon. In all 
this we were, mentally, a province of British architectural thought. The Georgian 
and Colonial tradition survived, in both town and country, and gave us some very 
ugly but essentially comfortable houses, thousands of which, with their brown stone 
fronts in the cities and their carpenter’s porches in the country, are still with us. 
Anybody who feels inclined to deride the formal architectural orders can see their 
justification by noting what the local carpenter substituted for them in the porches 
of the houses we have just mentioned. Our general attitude of mind was that we 
either had to change or improve. The Civil War roughly put a period to this cycle. 

After the Civil War came a vast era of expansion, with its consequent archi- 
tectural growing pains. This second half of the last two-thirds of the nineteenth 
century (to keep our formal division) may be said to start with a tripartite channel 
of effort—the Cast Iron Renaissance, the Queen Anne, the Richardsonian; it ended 
in the decades of the copyists, that transition period of experimentation with 
accepted Continental forms, which prepared the minds of owners for the present 
age. The Cast Iron school is a peculiarly American development. It was here 
we first began to strike out boldly on our own. It was an effort, now entirely 
abandoned, to produce the frontings of Renaissance type building in cast iron. 
The best examples are now to be found in the older business sections of our larger 
cities. It was in full efflorescence in Chicago just before the Fire. Broadway, in 
New York, between City Hall Park and Fourteenth Street, contains some outstand- 
ing specimens. ‘There is a very complete example in the mid-town section of 
New York in a hotel named after an avenue on which it is not located. In domestic 
architecture it is chiefly seen, in the cities, in pillars before the entrance door, in 


balustrading, bay windows, and railings to the high stoop of the usual “brown 


[3] 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


stone front,” painted or sand-dusted to resemble the brown stone with which they 
are associated. To cast iron as cast iron we have no particular objection. Our 
irritation is directed at cast iron poorly disguised as brown stone. Cast iron and 
brown stone really came to their full blooming simultaneously. It might be juster, 
although more cumbersome, to call this movement the cast iron and brown stone 
Renaissance. 

Perhaps the same mode of thought is responsible for what we now, on the 
lucus a non lucendo principle, call, “Queen Anne.” I can best explain Queen 
Anne by an analogy from nature. It is as if two streams, that of the diminishing 
Renaissance and of the dying Gothic, converged in swampy land, clotted with 
individualistic efforts to absorb, and divert, and coalesce both flows. It took these 
a generation to force their way through and emerge once more in a united stream. 
Just as a swamp is hydraulic anarchy, so is the Queen Anne style architecturally. 
It was not so regarded by its contemporaries; in its day it had some wonderful 
panegyrists. After being alluded to as “‘free classic,” it was naively defended; it 
“deserves to be popular for it allows an architect to express himself freely and 
also in an attractive manner that ordinary (sic) people like . . . (it) expresses 
with virile charm our English liking for compromise and picturesque shapes.” The 
above from a Britisher; an American contemporary has described it with more of 
the modern feeling: “A comprehensive name made to cover a multitude of incon- 
eruities.”” Phrasing it with a layman’s freedom of expression, the normal Queen 
Anne “cottage” consists of about twenty rooms, eight towers, an overwhelming 
porte cochére, big enough for a hotel, arches ad lib., and a half dozen porches. 
It combines every moribund classic detail with fanciful Gothic gables, peaks, 
and spires. If really satisfactory and not pruned down by a later generation, it 
also includes little touches of the Byzantine, some ornamental cast iron fretwork 
along the ridges, and a full complement of lightning-rods. Any bare spaces are 
tortured with ornament or with medallion inserts. The sort of thing that, as a 
wedding cake, would be a pastry cook’s triumph, but as a dwelling is an 
architectural nightmare. The city examples are a thought more restrained, the 
price of land forbidding such free rambling; but the mental idea back of them 
is the same. If you ever look at a place, in city or country, and say to yourself, 


Rend 


AMEE AR ICEAON@S EL OM ES 0 F Oe DAY. 


“Now what the deuce style is that?’’, the answer is probably Queen Anne. Si 
monumentum requiris, circumspice; for they persist in their tens of thousands all 
over the United States. 

Looked at in one way, Queen Anne may be considered an outward visible 
sign of inward architectural incompetence. I do not think that is quite fair. It 
is more just to regard it as a testing of youthful strength, the eternal sophomore 
in our architectural development, a necessary evil on the road to completer under- 
standing. There was a lot of nonsense and buncombe in the prevailing academic 
ideas, especially about Renaissance, into which the Greco-Roman revival of the 
earlier period had naturally changed. At least we had the courage to experiment, 
the feeling that it was worth while to attempt to do something better. Had we 
never made the effort and never suffered our Queen Anne, as a growing child 
has the mumps and measles, we might still be doing imitations of imitations of 
Renaissance, of Georgian, and of Victorian Gothic. We were perfectly willing, 
however ashamed we may now be of the results, to attempt the hitching of our 
architectural wagon to a star. 

Then along came Henry Hobson Richardson. Probably only students of 
architecture know his name, but the entire United States has seen his works, in 
original or in imitation. Our two chief colleges, Harvard and Yale, have, or 
had during the nineteenth century, their outstanding buildings in the Richardsonian 
manner. ‘Trinity Church in Boston is his best-known work. As impartial a 
witness as Baedeker, 1909 edition, speaks of it as ““deservedly regarded as one 
of the finest buildings in America.”” Had Richardson confined himself to church 
building, it would not have mattered; churches are more or less privileged. But 
he turned his enormous physical energy to domestic architecture and created a 
school which weighed down nascent American taste like a granite feather bed. 
Although Richardson did design city houses on the usual rectangular city plot, 
his battle-axe manner more seized the imagination of his contemporaries when it 
had ground to play about in. It was better suited to the full block plots of the 
substantial citizens of our smaller cities, or to suburban developments; and there 
the most characteristic extant specimens are to be seen. The sine qua non of a 


Richardsonian structure, church, department store, bank, college hall, or suburban 


[5] 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


or city home, is a gigantically heavy Romanesque arch, one of those round, half 
barrel effects in huge, chunky stones, resting on grotesquely obese and stumpy 
pillars. In Trinity Church the effect is suitable enough, because the structure 
has bulk; in a twenty-room house the effect is somewhat that of a Hercules straining 
mightily to hold up a crépe paper lamp shade. The smaller the house the more 
absurd does the ponderosity of the arch become. For the rest, there is, in any 
Richardsonian building, the sense of stone in mass, as a raw material. Imposing 
was the favorite adjective of the Richardsonian school; imposing is correct enough 
if one measures imposition by tonnage. 

The objection to the Richardsonian style for American domestic uses is its 
complete exoticism. While a student in Paris, Richardson became enamoured of 
the Romanesque as evolved in the Auvergne district in Central France. This is 
a very local thing, due to special social and geologic conditions, and is completely 
medieval in mental background, adapted to the uses of a fighting time, building 
only fortress castles and fortress churches. For such purposes, the Romanesque 
of Auvergne and of Richardson are eloquent. They speak of the medizval knight; 
one can almost hear the clang of armor and steel in every Richardsonian arch. 
For the dwelling of a peacefully disposed, commuting, business executive they 
are as inappropriate as anything may well be. Seen against its usual American 
background, there is a bombastic pretentiousness about the Richardsonian manner 
that is harsh and irritating. Furthermore, nothing taken quite so deliberately 
out of a book of views as Trinity Church (the general effect from Auvergne, the 
spire from Salamanca) can ever be satisfying. There is an aroma of the paste-pot 
about it that marks it alien. Richardson tried to adapt to the generation which 
elected Rutherford B. Hayes president, an architectural style produced, at the 
break-up of the Dark Ages, at the precise spot in the mountains of central France 
where Nordic and Latin temperaments met in ebb tide. It was only his own 
robustious temperament that imposed it upon his contemporaries; with his death 
the school collapsed into rapidly diminishing waves of futile imitation. 

Yet there are some good things to be said for Richardson. He was chief 
figure in the perhaps unconscious campaign of educating the American public to 
a realization of the existence of pre-Victorian architectural styles in Europe, worth 


Ge 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


any American’s attention. The discussion his buildings created, and they certainly 
do strike the eye, did more than any other one factor in getting the whole historic 
European architectural scene into American consciousness. Another contempo- 
rary, Richard Morris Hunt, emerges from the period as the author of numerous 
signed pieces of domestic architecture, in the ornamented phase of the early French 
Renaissance. Furthermore, Richardson had as pupil, and associate on Trinity 
Church, the late Stanford White, who made the exuberant Italian school as familiar 
to Americans as Hunt had the French chateaux. 

Nothing is mentally more difhcult than to be altogether just to the high 
enthusiasms of one’s parents. But at its best, the work of the last decade or decades 
of the nineteenth century, apart from the debased Renaissance, the Queen Anne, 
and Richardsonianism, was the work of copyists, who did little more than furnish, 
for us to ponder and digest, more or less uninspired copies of European archi- 
tectural notabilities. Any summer place fashionable a generation ago, Bar Harbor, 
Tuxedo, Newport, offers numerous examples of what I mean—lumpy, tasteless and 
unnecessarily ostentatious structures which would never have been built if con- 
sidered de novo either by the owner or the architect. But no successful man is ever 
too far in advance of his time; the architects of the closing years of the last century 
broke the ground, we are now reaping the harvest. 

Perhaps our greatest architectural achievement of the first decade of the new 
century was the sudden hopeful realization that, as a nation, we were devoid of 
creative architectural genius. Not that that is necessarily a sackcloth-and-ashes 
event. We have companions in our hesitancy. One thing a trip abroad will teach 
anybody is that the United States does not need to be ashamed of its art or its 
architecture. They are giving knighthoods in Great Britain right now for archi- 
tecture as bad as anything Richardson ever did at his worst, and then writing long, 
condescending books explaining to the rest of the world how good it is. We, at 
least, cast our Victorianism overboard. The only really new note in architecture, 
since the Brothers Adam, came out of Munich and Vienna in the “‘new art” houses 
they were beginning to develop in the Teutonic countries. The war ended the 
possibility of our seriously considering them. Probably they were too idiomatic 
of their creators to thrive very far from the Danube and the Elbe. 


Biren 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


Before we return to domestic architecture, let me (to prevent the possibility 
of the thought that it has been overlooked) turn to the question of our big rail- 
road terminals and skyscrapers. There lay our one superb chance to be original. 
Were we? We were not. Our two best railroad terminals, in New York, are 
both Greco-Roman temples, one seen in the stern austerity of granite, the other 
in the “mild vulgarity” (Julian Street’s happy phrase) of the Beaux Arts manner. 
Our best skyscraper is a terra cotta cathedral. Stand in New York’s City Hall 
Park some day and look around you. Every one of the skyscraper successes is an 
enlargement of some very easily recognizable model, Greco-Roman, Renaissance, 
Gothic; not a really new note in one of them. Not, mark you, that I have any 
idea myself as to what new thing would be desirable; although it does seem that 
the Munich-Vienna method might have produced results. The point is that we 
have not yet evolved anything new, of our own creation. As this is being written 
the new zoning law in New York skyscraper districts may, by forcing us to think 
along non-traditional lines, give us something individual. Some very effective 
designs have, at least, seen the light at Architectural League Exhibitions. 

Our turning to the three accepted models for monumental architecture in the 
construction of our skyscrapers, is precisely what we have done, more frankly 
perhaps, in domestic architecture. We have recognized our limitations. We are 
no longer trying to be inventive. We have accepted certain things as standardized, 
and are now striving correctly to interpret the standards. Not as benumbed 
copyists, rustling over pages to get “‘examples,” but as disciples and colleagues, 
striving, exempli gratia, to build an Adam house as Robert Adam would have done 
did he motor into his work from Westbury. In this frame of mind do the modern 
architects whose work is illustrated in this book attack their problems. 

The illustrations appended to this chapter have been, it must be confessed, 
included more because of their availability than because they specifically illustrate 
the ideals upon which this book is based. They do, by fortunate circumstance, 
give a fairly comprehensive idea of some of the chief styles in existence, though 
they deviate from the intention of showing only houses erected since 1900, as 
will be the rule in illustrations in succeeding chapters. Aeroplane photographs 


are given more to amuse and interest than to make a particular point. 


Gs 


* 
HITS Kemeny pereereretrrrey srerserremsenre eerrierrssrrret 


pec cy oreo ee 2 


DELANO & ALDRICH, Architects. 


MRS. HARRY PAYNE WHITNEY’S STUDIO AT ROSLYN, L. I. 


Mrs. Whitney, the well known New York sculptor of the Titanic Memorial, the Aztec fountain in the 

Pan American building in Washington, and the statue of “Buffalo Bill” in Yellowstone Park, has this 

practical and delightful studio well screened from the house by thick woods. As will be seen from subse- 
quent illustrations of its details, it is a very intelligent rendering of the classic 


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CHAPTER TWO 


THE. ASTHETIC PROBLEM 


W ay the historic facts took place as outlined in the previous chapter is 
a question rather of the esthetics of architecture than of architecture. In writing 
about the esthetic side of architecture I know I rush in where not only angels 
might fear to tread but where there has been the most acrimonious discussion since 
the days of Pericles and Phidias—and I mention them only because they are the 
earliest owner and supervising architect whose names come to mind. We have 
Kipling’s word for it that a discussion of the esthetic principles involved was 
what caused the discontinuation of the Tower of Babel. All disputants agree, 
however, upon one thing; there is a definite, ascertainable standard. 

The tumult and the shouting about esthetics started with Plato, as nearly as 
I remember. The one clear sentence which has emerged from the mist of over 
twenty centuries of discussion is to the effect that beauty lies in the eye of the 
beholder. If we modify that to read that those things are considered in good 
taste which satisfy the urge to beauty of the educated, traveled, gently nourished 
of one’s generation and locality, we probably come as near to a definition of the 
esthetic standard as may be. It is both local and temporal; a matter of majority 
opinion within a restricted class. If “they” tell you that eating with your knife— 
or wearing a red necktie with a dinner coat—or a ten-room suburban villa in the 
manner of Richardson, are alike anathema, there is no appeal from the sentence. 
Torquemada was never more absolute. The difficulty is to be satisfied as to what 
“they” do think. Architecture has never been codified quite as rigidly as table 
manners or evening dress. 


The rest of this book is devoted to supplying such a codification for the past 
[ 20 ] 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


twenty-odd years of home building in America, to showing, photographically, 
what is now considered the best by contemporaneous owners and architects. The 
rest of this chapter is devoted to an analysis of the forces codperating to this 
reversal, revision, and improvement of architectural form since the beginning of 
this century. Our beholder’s eye has changed; let us consider why. 

In the last two-thirds of the nineteenth century we were a young and strug- 
gling nation; we had not found ourselves; we were suffering from an inferiority 
complex. As one of the surest symptoms of that complex, we were self-assertive, 
self-conscious, very unwilling to admit that we could not do everything better 
than everybody else. The redeeming thing is that we translated disquiet into 
action; we did set out to try to better the rest of the world. We made tentative 
advances into every field of endeavor; whatever success we may have had else- 
where, in architecture we failed to do anything creative. 

Then, about 1900, something went click in our architectural mentality. We 
stood up and, so to speak, wiped the perspiration of vain effort from our brow, 
gazed around upon the classic and accepted standards of domestic architecture, 
and decided that they were good. It occurred to us that perhaps, after all, the 
Almighty had not put us into the world to improve them. With new poise, we 
realized that fact and were not ashamed; we came of mental age, as it were. We 
recognized that the century had shown that our racial genius was practical—that 
problems of manufacture, of transportation, of the administration and develop- 
ment of the constantly increasing uses of steam and electricity, were absorbing 
our best creative effort. Against the iron-front architectural scarecrows of lower 
Broadway in New York we placed our railroad and telephone systems (as one 
who has recently sampled the British and Continental, I say we should thank God 
fasting for them both); against the restless memory of Henry Hobson Richardson 
we weighed our plumbing, our automobiles, our typewriters, yes, even our phono- 
graphs (to mention only a few of the mechanical things we indisputably do best), 
and felt that even if we had not revolutionized architecture we had contributed 
our quota to the health, comfort, and amelioration of life, a contribution the ex- 
tent of which is the value sign of any civilization. 

Thus we entered the twentieth century with a new-found willingness-to-dis- 


[ 21] 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


cuss, with a critical eye towards the surviving monuments we had cherished in a 
previous century, with receptive docility before the models which the rest of the 
world had agreed were acceptable. I alluded earlier in this chapter to table man- 
ners. Shakspere probably never used a fork, his fingers and his knife were his 
table tools; if he saw a fork it was as an ingenious jeweler’s novelty brought back 
from Italy by some touring noble. Yet James I used one habitually. Why? 
James probably, in a way, went under the same influences to which we yielded 
twenty-or-so years ago; he stood his own table manners up against those of the 
outside world, and something within him approved the fork. Once willing to 
look the field over, once questioning the completeness of our own architectural self- 
sufficiency, we turned to the best examples of various styles in the outer world, 
and studied them with an adult, and unprejudiced, eye. We found that each 
nation, after centuries of experimentation, had perfected an esthetically satisfy- 
ing form of house, a type peculiarly suited to certain physical backgrounds and 
mental habits. 

If you have had anything to do with architecture at all, you have unques- 
tionably heard of the architectural “Orders.” They afford so emphatically the 
simplest means of showing how esthetic standards develop that I will explain 
them here. After some five hundred years of building, the ancient Greeks, prob- 
ably by the trial-and-failure method, discovered that a Doric column looked best 
to the average eye of the average beholder if it were constructed along certain 
very definite proportions. Let us take the Doric columns of the Parthenon 
(generally conceded to be one of the architectural xsthetic triumphs of the 
world) as an example. The unit of measurement is the diameter of the base of 
the shaft. The shaft is five times as high as the diameter, the capital a half a 
diameter. The entablature (the wall immediately supported by the columns) 
is one and eight-tenths diameters. The column diminishes one twenty-fifth of its 
height, has twenty flutings, and a slight convex swelling two-fifths of the way up 
called the entasis. And so on, and so on, and so on. The Parthenon has been 
measured and proportioned down to the thousandth part of a foot. All this 
relationship and inter-relationship of the shaft, capital, entablature, and their 
subdivisions, to each other, constitutes an ‘‘Order.” 

[ 22 ] 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


The Order indicated above is the Doric Order, as exemplified in the Parthe- 
non. ‘There are five Orders in all. No architectural deity ever called a Moses 
from among the builders and gave him these proportional figures. They are not 
sacrosanct. Some genius may arise to-morrow and discover another set. But, 
centuries of building have taught unmistakably that certain ordered proportions 
—which are what architectural Orders are—stand the pragmatic test. If one 
builds a Greek, a Roman, or a Renaissance building according to some of the rec- 
ognized Orders, he stands a much better chance of producing good results than 
if he tries to deviate—barring always the chance that he may be the long-sought 
genius. The Greeks varied a great deal—the flutings on a Doric column run 
from twelve to twenty-four; but the centuries have decided that twenty are just 
right. 

No especial disgrace attaches to Americans for being unable to invent any- 
thing architectural in the one hundred and forty-nine years of our national exis- 
tence, when we consider that in the two thousand five hundred years since the 
building of the Parthenon there have been only four outstanding codifications of 
the Orders. The first was by Augustus Cesar’s inspector general of artillery, 
Vitruvius, written in the last years before Christ. There are two medieval adap- 
tations, modeled on Vitruvius, in the sixteenth century, both by Italians, Palladio 
and Vignola, and an eighteenth century English further adaptation by Sir William 
Chambers. 

The Greco-Roman classic structures, and their descendants, the columnar 
Renaissance buildings, have endured the most complete codification of any; but 
similarly accepted forms have, to a greater or less degree, been reached in all the 
domestic architectural types, American Colonial, Adam, Georgian, French and 
Italian, the Picturesque and the various Mediterranean forms familiar in our 
South and West. Their standards have tentatively been set; after a century of 
attempts to improve we have decided to accept. 

At first, in the flush of our new feelings, we were too rigid in our enthusi- 
asms; no zeal like that of a proselyte. We went through the “period” fever, in 
which no house was good unless it was traceable to some definite prototype; no 
piece of decoration fitting unless it could be given a page number in some classic 

[ 23 ] 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


work on the subject. We were as imitative as the nineteenth century. But this 
was transitory; we went through another Renaissance, mentally not far removed 
from the mood in which the architects of the medieval Renaissance confronted 
their problems. 

With all possible respect for our models; we brought to their recreation, and 
adaptation to present conditions, a full realization of wherein they were lacking, 
not in architectural perfection, but in standards of living comfort to which we are 
accustomed. I called it, above, a Renaissance; it is in effect all of that. Palladio 
and Vignola, with the utmost reverence for the Greco-Roman column, entablature 
and arch, yet did not build Greco-Roman structures. They built Sixteenth Cen- 
tury Italian. Our buildings are essentially of their year of creation. As Palladio 
and Vignola developed and carried on, so we develop and carry on. i 

I might compare our architectural progress during the last hundred odd years 
to the process of education. Up to the Jacksonian epoch we were, architecturally, 
children, accepting what we found in situ without comment. There followed the 
high school, or preparatory school, age; with the crass optimism of adolescence we 
rejected standards and set out to improve. This is the attitude of mind which 
discovers continents, only in this case all it led to was Brown Stone cum Cast Iron 
and Queen Anne. We were not really discoverers, any more than the children 
who play Robinson Crusoe in a suburban back yard. In Queen Anne we thought 
we were doing something fine and big—while we were only making architectural 
mud pies. With Richardson and Hunt, we may be said to have entered the 
college stage. For the first time we were brought sharply face to face with the 
existence of standards other than paternal or local. We had exhausted the 
English architectural impulse which we had inherited. We welcomed the 
Continent. 

Naturally the styles we liked best then were the robustious, over-ornamented 
complex styles which always please the vigorous, untrained eye and mind of youth. 
College life is a very simple, ordered thing, brain and eye are yet untired by con- 
tact with life; both, in matters esthetic, like the intricate, the involved, the verbose; 
the showy. They got it in Richardson and the other copyists. At least these 
served as excellent chopping blocks upon which to develop taste. Shortly after 

[ 24 J 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


the opening of the present century, we graduated and became adult and sophisti- 
cated at breakneck speed. 

Back of all esthetic preference is the mental congruity involved, the apper- 
ceptive mass controlling the “eye of the beholder.””. Somewhere around 1900, 
in Kipling’s insulting but prophetic phrase, we had done with childish things. 
We lost our mental as well as our geographic isolation. Life became crowded 
and complex. [Eyes and brain acquired the adult poise and calm bred of having 
experienced and endured much; if you like, both became tired. We have to-day 
visualized too many things in life to linger lovingly over the details of a hurried, 
crowded, shouting architecture which pleased the eye and ear of youth. Oscar 
Wilde, an excellent critic upon modern taste, has laid down the principle that 
simplicity is the last refuge of the complex. So in architecture we have gone back 
to the artificially simple or artificially organized styles, products in their degree, 
of a civilization mentally akin to our own. Of all the architects who practised 
before 1900, Stanford White alone struck a note which persisted. 

With older and more carefully trained intelligence we also became dissatis- 
fied with the frank imitation which was the outstanding feature of the nineteenth 
century in its neo-classic, Gothic, and Richardsonian aspects. We refused to be 
so stereotyped. We now come to the consideration of an architectural style as 
disciples and colleagues—adapting and carrying on, in respect and enthusiasm, the 
basic principles of design which we have bothered to make serious effort to 
comprehend—not as draftsmen arduously tracing detail. On the other hand we 
have lost the factitious desire to change as an alleged improvement. We recog- 
nize the sanctity of style and have learned the predominant importance of con- 
sistency. The devastating crimes our grandparents committed in the name of 
ecclecticism are no longer ours. Even the exponents of Queen Anne talked of the 
“artistic unity of the resulting work.”’ So do we to-day; to-day, however, it is a 
unity judged by standards other than those of purely our own creation. The es- 
thetic opinions of the ages overshadow, shape, and crystallize our own. 

“The artistic unity of the resulting work’—some architectural atrocities 
have seen daylight under the cloak of that phrase. We think we have ceased so 
doing. I said earlier that esthetic standards are local and temporary. They are. 


[ 25 J 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


Life is eternally swinging through the spiral cycle of change. Our grandchildren 
may be Richardsonian again. 

The illustrations in this chapter have been selected because each may be 
said to satisfy the esthetic urge in the various standard types of modern domestic 


architecture mentioned above. 


L 26 J 


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CHAPTER THREE 


ATG EAT EY Eee) hee TENG TEOsINes 


: THE fairest and the most dangerous thing to do in a book of this sort is 
to define your terms. Pointing out where other authors’ definitions fall short 
of perfection is tremendously easier than erecting your own. Curiously enough, 
even in Tudor and Elizabethan times, there seems to have been bitter contro- 
versy as to what properly constituted a Tudor or Elizabethan building; and it 
is a great shock when a student of architecture discovers that some of the things 
she, in her ignorance, had supposed to be essential characteristics of the Eliza- 
bethan, were bitterly denounced by contemporaries as damnable Italian innova- 
tions. For reasons already made obvious, however, no set of architectural defi- 
nitions would apply in this book. Elastic as is the tendency of period definition 
in American architectural practice (pasting a period label on a house has distinctly 
gone out), no set of terms compounded with architectural needs in mind would 
give the proper connotation, at once sufficiently correct architecturally and yet 
implying the intelligent owner’s point of view, which is needed in this book. 

After considerable mental questioning, the following seven, to each of which 
a subsequent chapter of detailed comment will be given, have been selected and 
will be used for purposes of this book: The Colonial, the English, the Italian and 
the French derivative, the Elizabethan Picturesque, the Modern Picturesque, and 
the Mediterranean. 

Into one or another of these seven pigeonholes every notable example of 
American architecture of the last generation falls with a sufficiently distinct em- 
phasis to give the definitions that inclusive and exclusive quality which the logi- 


[ 34 ] 


AMERITGAN, HOMES OF TO-DAY 


cians tell us is a definition’s essential. An analysis of the above will show that 
the three types which we mentioned in the previous chapter, the neo-classic, the 
Gothic, and the Richardsonian or Romanesque, are not included. Add to these 
two more styles, the Gothico-Renaissance and the Renaissance, and you have the 
complete catalogue of architectural styles which, from the point of view of this 
book, are not being done in domestic architecture. The nature of the first three 
has been sufficiently explained. By Gothico-Renaissance, or, as the French call it, 
from certain outstanding specimens on Fifth Avenue in the Fifties, Vanderbilt 
architecture, is meant the type produced in the French chateau country where 
the fantastically individual exuberance of the artisan architect, still impregnated 
with Gothic thought, collided with the then newly discovered formalism of classic 
times in the effort to erect a furtively military pleasure house for a highly privileged 
aristocracy. 

The whole Gothic urge is an absorbingly interesting thing. As expressed in 
architecture it has unquestionably given us some of the most visually delightful 
structures in Europe. It has established a standard for the church and for the 
residence fortress which has never been surpassed. As a form of domestic archi- 
tecture, however, it is as impossible of modern wear as plate armor. To attempt 
to do so is affectation, partially successful in rare instances. Gothic architecture 
was produced by our own Nordic ancestors in their sophomore age when they were 
just beginning to feel their mental oats. A piece of Gothic architecture is a bit 
of individual dexterity rather than a problem in architecture. It was the particu- 
lar craftsman who put it up showing the world, his own walled city and perhaps 
a few fellow craftsmen, what he could do on an architectural slack wire. And 
like Bird Millman, if he could pirouette over an abyss, he was that much happier. 
The technical problems that the Gothic architects solved, that they delighted to 
solve, still arouse ungrudging admiration. But the whole thing was designed 
basically as a bid for applause, an expression in the most untrammeled form the 
world has ever seen, with the single exception, perhaps, of the pyramids, of the 
erection of buildings pour épater la bourgeoisie. 

Now the basis of all effectiveness in architecture is underlying sincerity, a 
belief on the producer’s part that that which he is creating is about the most per- 

[ 35 J 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


fect thing God permits man to construct. They felt that way about Gothic in me- 
dizeval times; and their cathedrals will remain harmonious joys as long as the 
civilized eye functions as it does now. But the whole attitude of mind to-day is 
as alien as possible to the mood which produced the house of Jacques Coeur at 
Bourges, the Cluny Museum in Paris, or the Chateau of Pierrefonds. What hap- 
pens when a decade or so is hypnotized into thinking it likes Gothic can be seen 
in the remnants of so-called Victorian Gothic still encumbering English-speaking 
countries. In a mild way, with many differentiating clauses, there were the same 
mental conditions which produced the original Gothic. There was, in the reign 
of the good Queen Victoria, a large, newly enriched class of manufacturers who, 
naturally individualists, and also laboring with the usual inferiority complex, 
turned to that most individual of all styles, to assert their new found dignity. 
The whole movement was so fictitious that it wore out in a generation; but it 
serves, if no other purpose, the point of warning. Compare the eager, compli- 
cated, yet assured enthusiasms of Notre Dame and the Sainte Chapelle with the 
tortured, meaningless twistings, the gewgaw adornments, the Doré towers of the 
London Law Courts and you read the epitaph of Gothic architecture. The gen- 
eration which produced the automobile cannot think in terms of the individual 
artisan. Milan Cathedral had fifty architects; such a thing is unthinkable to-day. 

The Renaissance style is worn out, too, though for a different reason. 
Frankly we have grown tired of it. It was our first step back from the nineteenth 
century into the fold of recognizable architectural style. So much of it was put 
up about the time we were engaged in the unpleasant business of fighting Spain 
along the then newly discovered Riverside Drive in New York that brilliant young 
men of to-day refer to it as Mid-McKinley Renaissance, or Riverside Drive Em- 
pire, both terms denoting the floridly over-decorated Baroque sort of thing with a 
front covered with ornament in very high relief, pillars, cornices, swags, vollutes, 
bunches of flowers and grapes, tumbling cupids, fat urns, and all the dewdabs and 
dinghickeys from an architect’s scrapbook. Fifth Avenue is not guiltless of an 
outstanding example of this type at its worst. It is a very famous mansion past 
which, so the legend runs, the drivers of sight-seeing automobiles are compelled to 
get down and lead the bus. It should be perfectly understood, of course, that the 

[ 36 ] 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


Renaissance style, which is usually from the French, rather than the Italian, is in 
perfectly good standing and is in constant use to-day in very pleasing guise. But 
it requires very big scale, such a thing for instance as the New York Customs House 
overlooking Bowling Green, or, at the least, a big apartment house, to get the solid 
imposingness which is its birthright. The French Renaissance came to its perfect 
bloom in the age of Louis XIV, a gentleman who needed a space like the main 
entrance hall of the Metropolitan Museum to hold an afternoon tea in, and 
something the size of Union Square when he really gave a party. ‘Trying to 
cram all the connotations of the Grand Monarch into a twenty-five-foot front, 
even on a choice Riverside Drive plot, is sadly out of the picture. The effect, 
when it is tried, is of a fussy showiness, of a newly richness, which is highly 
irritating. 

The Colonial is America’s one great outstanding contribution to the gallery 
of architectural styles. By the term is meant in this book a type of structure 
founded on farm houses and country houses created on this side during the period 
at which the United States was a colony of Great Britain, through the succeeding 
generation or so down, say, to the Presidency of General Jackson. The over- 
whelmingly predominating culture at that time was British and, in general, the 
type of house produced in America adapted British originals to local conditions. 
The specific type varied with latitude, from the clapboarded structures of 
New England, the gable ends of New York, the natural stone of Philadelphia, to 
the large porticos of the Carolinas; but they are all easily recognizable variations 
of motives which were then the prevailing architectural note in England. Gener- 
ally speaking, they were on a more intimate scale, both in actual physical size and 
in domestic connotation, than the originals. Also they were essentially the pro- 
ductions of carpenters rather than masons. The clapboard was America’s most 
distinctive contribution to the style. The second was the porch, to be used neither 
for ornament nor as a porte-cochére, but for the rest and recreation of the family 
and as an outdoor living room and meeting place for local society. 

Sharing with the Colonial in present popularity are houses erected in the 
English manner. While a numerical check has not been attempted it is highly 
probable that were one made it would show more houses of distinctly English 

[ 37 J 


AMERICAN® HOMES OF TO-DAY 


model now being built in America than of any other type. So numerous, indeed, 
are the examples that the subsequent chapter devoted to them has been divided in 
two, for the separate consideration of the Georgian and the Adam influence. In 
general one thinks of an English Georgian house as a square sort of structure, 
usually, though not always, in red brick, with a flattish roof and with wings, if 
any, symmetrically placed. The decoration plainly derives from Italian and is 
inclined to voluptuous richness, in both exterior and interior. Generally speaking, 
it has a mental suggestion of hospitality, even friendliness, distinctly tempered, 
however, by formality, dignity, and reserve. One always remembers before a real 
Georgian house that it was erected in a time when manners were very important. 
The Adam house is an older, calmer, more sophisticated, and more world-weary 
cousin of the Georgian. It is a much more artful product. A true Adam house is 
as clean cut, as polished, as straight, as scintillating as a duelling rapier. Struc- 
turally it is built of the same materials, symmetrically made of red brick, with 
white stone trimmings, but every detail is restrained, delicate, suave. A Georgian 
house was conceived for hearty feeding and stately manners. The Brothers Adam 
put their structures up for quick wit and a gourmet’s appreciation of the finer 
pleasures of life. They suggest fine bindings, really good rugs, vintage wines, 
first impression engravings, delicate pencil drawings, a Flaxman, an Angelica 
Kauffmann, an Aubrey Beardsley original. They are the most, the only, French 
things Great Britain has ever produced. 

The Italian derivative takes us into another world. In the Georgian and the 
Adam you have been looking at Italian models seen through British eyes and 
adapted to British conditions. The first thing that impresses one about the real 
Italian architecture is its sheer brute vigor, expressing itself, usually, in symmet- 
rical mass. It looms larger against the skyline, has more of actual weight of stone 
behind it. It still smells of the medieval; there is still a feeling about every 
Italian house that the builder had in mind the necessity of defence against the 
sudden night attack. Built usually in stucco, though perhaps not more so than 
in stone or brick, it is, in the types which are now popular, comparatively bare of 
ornament and sombre. It is much more reserved even than the Adam style and, 
while it may, in the country, be made very brilliant in coloring, with flowers and 


[ 38 J 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


awnings, it seldom has a hospitable sense. There is more blank wall and less 
window space, a still traceable feeling of the fortress model. In a way, though 
at first it may seem surprising to say so, it is symbolic of an attitude of mind 
not altogether unlike that which produces the Adam style, sterner but with the 
same mental reserves. 

The French style as it is being put up to-day is decidedly picturesque in gen- 
eral feeling and takes its inspiration from the high peaked, plain-walled, French 
manor house, and not from the much be-written and be-illustrated, highly elabo- 
rated French chateau, which, as has been explained earlier in the chapter, has 
been dropped into an at least temporary architectural discard. All this is in keep- 
ing with the general conscious movement of to-day architecturally towards sim- 
plicity. There are probably fewer houses going up to-day on the French model 
than on any other, a fact which is largely so because a previous generation went 
in for its French chateaux, both Renaissance and neo-classic, too generously, and 
many owners of the present era must have told their architects that they will live 
in anything but a French villa chateau, Newport model, vintage of the 1890's. 
This is a somewhat overlong swing of the pendulum against a perfectly workable 
style of which, occasionally, a very good example is erected, such as the Hamil- 
ton Rice house at Newport, a photograph of which is shown in this chapter. How 
much better and more simply the architects of to-day face such a problem when 
called upon to do so than they did some forty years ago can be seen from that 
photograph. 

The definition called Elizabethan Picturesque has been a greater source of 
trouble to its creator than any other. By it, generally speaking, is meant the type 
of building which makes one think of Hampton Court, of Shakspere’s place at 
Stratford, and of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in general, whether in 
Scotland, England or France. The type is not necessarily Elizabethan and so 
far as I know has never before been called picturesque. But those two adjectives are 
what most inevitably come to mind when an example of the sort is seen across the 
meadow. In spite of the urge towards simplicity which has been dwelt upon in 
the previous definitions, there is an asymmetrical streak in human nature which 
will have its irregularities, both of design and of detail. The Elizabethan workman 


[ 39 J 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


was still an individualist, like his Gothic great-grandfather, but his individual- 
ism was much more confined to detail. To such things, say, as wood carving. 
We have, fortunately, to-day a number of architects able to lavish sufficient archi- 
tectural affection and resource upon a house of this type to make it a work of art. 
The Elizabethan is not for all tastes, however; it requires the touch of genius, with 
true feeling for the epoch, to make it a success. External characteristics of the 
manner are peaked roofs, gables, a rambling, low-lying structure, and careful 
avoidance of symmetry. The models derived from the English period are usually 
in brick, with white stone trimming, and sections of half timber work. Those 
derived from the Scotch are usually in cut stone and are severer in outline. 

The Modern Picturesque is, roughly, the Elizabethan Picturesque without 
any traceable signs of sixteenth or early seventeenth century origin about it. Struc- 
turally it is the same type of low-lying, rambling structure, very carefully asym- 
metrical. While no precise style has yet been developed, the emphasis has been 
to make the roof the heroine of the story, to emphasize its importance. Inspired 
by the thatched and slate roofs of European peasants’ cottages, very careful effort 
is usually made to give a cottage effect, that is, of a building already sunk to the 
shape of the land, with slight modifications from the true. The ridge of the roof 
- is a straight line drawn flexibly by hand, rather than machine-cut by ruler. A 
picturesque building is something about which there is no half way ground. It 
is either a delight or a social error. That there are so many commendable exam- 
ples illustrated in the special chapter given to the subject is one of the highest 
tributes that can be paid to contemporaneous architectural ability. The Sabin 
house at Southampton is an achievement. 

The Mediterranean Model shares with the Modern Picturesque the distinc- 
tion of being the newest type of domestic structure to be developed in this country. 
When, after the Civil War, the Far West and the Far South, beyond and below 
the existing Colonial types of architecture, began to feel the need of architectural 
design in their buildings, there developed gradually the consciousness that styles 
derived from England, France, and Northern Italy, while perfectly appropriate to 
the Atlantic littoral and the Middle West, fitted into neither the California land- 
scape nor the sands of Miami and Palm Beach. Nations and culture emigrate 

[ 40 ] 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


along lines of latitude. The Forty-Niners and the early health seekers in Florida 
found there remnants of Spanish architecture implanted by the first settlers and 
structurally fitting the geography and climate of the country. As soon as architec- 
tural sense began to develop, it was comprehended that these models were the 
ones to copy and adapt rather than to attempt the translation of New England, 
New York, Pennsylvania or Virginia forms. There has, consequently, been a 
constantly increasing development of the generally Mediterranean type of build- 
ing, the low-lying structure, built around one or more courtyards, wholly or partly 
included within the walls, with flat tiled roofs, with thick stucco walls, few win- 
dows, and deep set loggias. This is the type of building used all along the 
Mediterranean from Greece to Spain. In those countries they added the one deco- 
rative touch most characteristic of the whole general style, the very elaborate 
decoration, one might almost say embroidery, of a doorway or window group in an 
otherwise bare expanse of wall, known as Plateresque. If Milan Cathedral is like 
a bit of rather heavy lace, thrown up into the air and frozen into stone, so a 
Plateresque doorway is like work done by a stonecutter with the manual dexterity 
of Grinling Gibbons and the mental facility of Benvenuto Cellini. Its overwhelm- 
ing exuberance is toned down by the vast expanse of mural blankness around and 
above. To the latitude of Boston, New York, or Chicago the Mediterranean type is 
a pure exotic. In Pasadena or Miami it has, apparently, permanently impressed 
itself. 

Before looking at the illustrations following it might not be inadvisable to 
turn back to those appended to the preceding chapter, which were selected for 
their especial appropriateness as representatives of the styles just defined. The 
succeeding photographs, taken together with these, give a fairly complete gallery 
of the essential, outstanding characteristics, external and interior, of the seven 


standard styles. 


[41 ] 


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Beasfals 
HH 
i 


ikgiinsi iin 


ae 


inh 


ale 
Dafedabas 
Bia lalalx 


DELANO & ALDRICH, Architects 


THE ENGLISH MANNER—MR. WILLIAM B. OSGOOD FIELD’S LENOX RESIDENCE 


B} 


yet precisely in the Georgian 


This detail, while entirely modern in conception and execution, is 
spirit, reflecting the exuberant feeling for decoration that belongs to the style 


This is a particularly interesting illustration of the Field residence, “High Lawn House,” at Lenox, Massachusetts, because it shows so dis- 


tinctly the details over door and windows. 


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BPP SES oe 


HARWOOD HEWITT, Architect 


THE MEDITERRANEAN MODEL—THE W. P. HANSON HOUSE NEAR PASADENA 


A detail of the garden front of Mr. Hanson’s California home showing both stair towers. This is an excellent 
example of the Mediterranean type, with all its potentialities for dramatized light and shade provided by the 
vast expanses of unadorned wall and massed forms which are characteristic of a successful example of this school 


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Photo. by M. . Hewitt ; PAUL CHALFIN and F. BURRALL HOFFMAN, JR., Architects 


A MEDITERRANEAN DETAIL—MR. JAMES DEERING’S HOME AT MIAMI, FLORIDA 


This glimpse of the patio of Mr. Deering’s residence gives a perfect keynote to the Mediterranean style, as will 

be observed in the chapter on that architectural expression in America. The photograph shows a seventeenth 

century Bacchus which guards a beautifully sculptured old Roman bath standing in a pool edged with black and 
gold marble 


” 


CEA Pal thee tO) 0b, 


TELE GOTO NTA 


S HE is a brave woman who attempts to add, however deprecatingly, anything 
to the acrimonious discussion on Colonial architecture. The only other question 
in literary history which has excited equally determined and equally bitter con- 
troversy is that as to why Hamlet did not kill the King until the end of the fifth 
act. Arguments as to what is and is not Colonial, its position in the history of 
architecture, rumble back and forth. There are as many claimants to the honor of 
being the only true type of Colonial as there are existing genuine Colonial struc- 
tures above ground. There are also Americans who take the tone that certain out- 
standing specimens of American Colonial building take rank in world architec- 
ture with Pierrefonds and Vaux Le Vicomte, with Blenheim and Chatsworth, with 
the Palazzo Barberini, or the Villa Medici. All that sort of thing was all right 
when we were a much younger and a much cruder nation and our inferiority 
‘complex had to come out even in architectural boasting; but any one who likes to 
think that the Colonial period really produced magnificent country estates, mag- 
nificent in the Continental or British sense, had better carefully avoid looking at 
the data. 

What the Colonial period did produce, what has given it a permanent place 
in architectural esteem, and in common affection to-day, is a certain quality of un- 
deniable charm, of adaptation to native living conditions, which no other style so 
intensely possesses. And yet the style which we to-day mean by Colonial would 
be impossible to find in any one original Colonial building. It is a combination, a 
coalescing, a development of various types which were erected in this country dur- 


[ 56 J 


AMERUVGAN HOMES: OF TO:DAY 


ing the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, together with an exaggeration and 
emphasis of certain of their features. 

- During those two centuries there were, generally, three types of buildings 
produced. ‘These were, in their chronological order, what might roughly be called 
the farm house, the town house, and the city house. When the farm houses 
first went up, in the early seventeenth century, they were of a picturesque type 
along Elizabethan models, with high peaked roofs of the type familiar through the 
House of the Seven Gables at Salem. By the time towns had developed and the 
substantial houses of the prosperous citizens began to be erected, the Hanoverian 
dynasty had ascended the English throne and the long period known as Georgian 
had commenced. The first of the town buildings were, generally, carpenter- 
artisan adaptations of Georgian originals. It is from these two types that the 
modern Colonial is derived. 

The third type, the brick buildings later erected in fairly large numbers in 
the cities, were copies of Georgian rather than adaptations. Most of the houses 
of any size at all erected in this country during the later eighteenth century, 
architecturally speaking, belong to this type. They are not what we have in mind 
to-day when we speak of Colonial. At about that time, say the last half of the 
eighteenth century, there began, in a hesitant way, the erection of country 
estates, also along easily recognizable Georgian lines. When to-day, however, we 
wish to erect Georgian structures here we return to the originals in Great Britain 
and, save as museums and as subjects for an architectural controversial holiday, 
American Georgian buildings have no longer any vital force. 

When the American colonist developed his farm house along more and more 
solid and substantial lines, as the Atlantic coast became more settled and its in- 
habitants richer, he found himself forced to adapt the British originals to local 
building conditions. Chief among these was the fact that here houses were built 
by carpenters rather than by masons. Subject to all the necessary modifications 
for the brickwork of New York and the native stonework of Philadelphia, this 
is one of the outstanding architectural features of buildings of the two types men- 
tioned. As a concomitant of these conditions there developed among the local 
builders an artisan’s pride of workmanship, together with the power of adapting 


[ 57 J 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


the originals to their own possibilities. During the eighteenth century there was 
a very surprising and generally unrealized importation of British architectural 
publications into this country. That was the golden age of British cabinet- 
making. The great trinity of British chair-makers, Chippendale, Hepplewhite, 
and Sheraton, produced their monumental works on cabinet-making at that time. 
These were imported into America in much greater quantity than is appreciated 
to-day, and seem to have had a very real circulation among the carpenters and 
local builders. When such a person was faced with the problem of enriching a 
local house he used for its external adornment patterns which, in the British origi- 
nals, were planned for interior use only. At that time, as now, British exteriors 
were in stone or brick. Copies of these exteriors, with their necessarily more 
massive character, suitable for working in stone, were also familiar to the Ameri- 
can workman and were accepted by him as a correct pattern. The contribution 
he made to architecture is that, being forced to substitute wood for stone in the 
exteriors of buildings, he adapted, in its substitution, so gracefully and success- 
fully the technic of carving in wood. 

This is the real contribution of the Colonial period to architecture. Had 
the native workman had less natural taste he might very well, as a carpenter’s bit 
of bravura, have imitated stonework in wood, precisely as a later age tried to 
imitate stonework in cast iron. Instead of so doing, however, he had the essen- 
tially good sense and good judgment to treat his material honestly. When he 
erected pillars to porches he treated them frankly as tree trunks and made them 
of slender proportions impossible to the stone worker. His sense of columnar 
proportion might have made Vitruvius weep, but he added something new to archi- 
tecture. When he wished to decorate under the eaves of a New Hampshire farm 
house he cut there dentillation so suave, so delicately, so sensitively in scale, 
that even yet architectural students go scouting through country roads of New 
England to view the chisel work of nameless carpenters who, although they have 
personally vanished, have yet left behind them a permanent esthetic mon- 
ument. 

Another American contribution, an integral part to-day of what we think of 
as the Colonial style, is the two story porch. It is, of course, an adaptation of the 


[ 58 ] 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


classic portico translated into terms of practical usefulness. It was a more promi- 
nent feature of Southern building during the Colonial period than of other dis- 
tricts, but it is only in the modern Colonial that it finally received its true ac- 
ceptance as a distinguishing feature of the style. 

There is a third element about the Colonial, the sentimental, which gives it 
a very sure hold upon the affections. Associated as it is, mentally, both with the 
formative period of our own history and with a time when living conditions, be- 
cause of lower per capita wealth and racial homogeneity, were, at least so we like 
to think, on a simpler and more friendly basis, there is about a properly erected 
Colonial house an atmosphere of welcome, a lack of ostentation, which cannot 
be claimed for any other style. 

It was said above that the precise style which to-day we mean by Colonial 
could not be found in any one original structure erected in the Colonial period. 
This is true partially because of the sentimentalizing process through which it has 
been subjected in our mind. Back of everything in the modern architects’ and 
builders’ mind, aside from question of detail and the essential two story porch, is a 
picture of a graceful, sweeping, well proportioned white clapboarded farm house 
in some picturesque relation to the surrounding landscape, on a hillock top, in 
an apple. orchard, surrounded by pines, or with a brook running through the 
front yard. A Colonial house to be successful must be a picture as well as a build- 
ing. So strong is this tendency that even when the house is not of white clap- 
board its brick structure is usually whitewashed. The native stone of Philadel- 
phia is the only material which has had vitality enough to withstand the whitening. 
The modern Colonial is not a copy of original models. It is an entirely sophisti- 
cated, an entirely glorified, twentieth century adaptation of a mental idea, under 
certain easily recognizable physical outlines, the artfully selected location, the 
general whiteness, the two story porch, and the enrichment with wood carving 
detail. 

Generally speaking, detail in Colonial houses is along Georgian models 
though it must always be remembered that there were Swedes, Germans, French, 
and Dutch who came to this country quite as early as the English and who, in 
small but unmistakable ways, have given their contribution to the gallery of 


[ 59 | 


AMERTCAN) HOMES OF TO-DAY 


Colonial detail. Indeed, one of the most charming recently erected Colonial 
houses, the Egerton L. Winthrop place at Syosset, Long Island, of which an illus- 
tration is shown in the second chapter, is decidedly French in general feeling and 
its interiors have so emphatically a French character that they are illustrated in a 
chapter devoted to the French style rather than herewith. Precisely, however, as 
an individual style was evolved in the Colonies from British exterior models, so 
a distinctly American school of interior decorating took form during the same time. 
Such things, for instance, as the rag carpet. Also the development in fruit 
woods, apple and pear, and the ever present maple, of furniture models which 
British cabinet makers were producing in walnut, mahogany and the rarer East 
Indian woods; also, again, the American rocking chair, that pet abomination of 
all other cultures but our own. 

If your liking is honestly and genuinely for the simpler types of furiture and 
interior decoration codified in England during the eighteenth century, with a 
special emphasis on the American adaptations thereof as just itemized, if your 
mental and racial and sentimental ancestry makes you think fondly of an idealized 
farm house existence, if you want to build in the real country, there is no type 
which suggests itself more instantly than the Colonial. The dangerous side about 
the Colonial is that if not properly handled, both by architect, interior decorator, 
and owner, it may become a very bleak and empty performance. JDaintiness of 
detail and delicacy of scale may descend into papery attenuation. The universal 
whiteness calls for a certain amount of richness in the interior which is rather 
dificult to supply from the properly concomitant furniture and decoration, espe- 
cially if one has become overweary of the chintz motive. On the other hand 
the recent glorification of the early American hook rug, the revived interest in 
colored glass, the willingness to polish pewter, and the republication of eighteenth 
century wall papers, are doing much to supply warmth and glow. ‘The real 
point is that a Colonial exterior, if properly carried out, with a right observance 
of the architectural and decorative amenities in the interior, calls for enormous 
self-discipline. Exotic things do not go, except in a conspicuous minority. 
Chinese and Italian importations, which slide easily enough into the more ornate 
Georgian, strike a howlingly discordant note against a Colonial background. Eng- 

L 60 J 


DoViGE eee ONDE S: OR cOe DAY 


lish and French furniture of the simplest types are as far afield, decoratively, as it 
is safe to roam. 

The main difficulty before the modern architect and owner is to provide a 
building preserving at the same time the intimate aspect of a glorified farmhouse 
and providing space enough for week-ending on the modern scale. A particularly 
happy solving of this problem is seen in the estate of the late Robert J. Collier, 
at Wickatunk, New Jersey, now owned by Mrs. Robert J. Collier, illustrated in this 
chapter. It is one of the most perfect and the most extensive Colonial develop- 
ments in the country. The house was planned for fifty guest rooms and a casino 
or playhouse for bad weather has additional accommodation for bachelor quar- 
ters. The residence and the outdoor interests are in the most perfect unison. 


The two story rear porch shown in one of the photographs was planned, as the rear 


ae 


MR. GEORGE P. BRETT’S HOME AT FAIRFIELD, CONNECTICUT 


While not an entirely new creation, being a composite formed by the moving of two old Connecticut farmhouses 

onto a common axis and joining them with a new central building of harmonious type, it is included in this 

chapter because it shows so well the character of the outline, the satisfying simplicity, which is so intangible but 
so real a basis for the charm of the Colonial house 


[ 61 J 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


Photo. by M. E. Hewitt PEABODY, WILSON & BROWN, Architects 


MR. REEVE SCHLEY’S PORCH 


This is the informal, one story porch at the garden end of the house, 
furnished as an outdoor sitting room. It is on a level with the grass, as 
is the two story porch illustrated elsewhere in this chapter 


porch at Mount Vernon 
was planned, not only for 
good looks but for prac- 
ticality, the floor put on 
a level with the lawn for 
the greater convenience 
of hunting parties and 
riders generally. There 
is everything to make 
living pleasant; a golf 
course, a baseball field, 
a steeplechase course, a 
polo and aviation field, 
hangars with two planes 
ready to follow the drag 
hunts, a stable with one 
hundred and ten box 
stalls for polo ponies and 
hunters, a kennel house 
for two packs of hounds, 
a garage with a complete 
machine shop and chauf- 
feurs’ quarters, indoor 


and outdoor squash 


courts, two artificial lakes, the larger, which is fifteen hundred feet long by two 


hundred and fifty feet wide, for the use of launches and motor boats, a some- 


what smaller one, planted with lies and used as a setting for various deco- 


rative aquatic fowl. There are indoor and outdoor swimming pools, the former 


measuring eighty by thirty feet, located in the playhouse which contains a gymna- 


sium, indoor tennis courts, and a lounging room. This building is encircled with 


a covered track for indoor riding and driving. 


These practical details of the Collier estate are related here because they are, 


[ 62 ] 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


actually, a definite part 
of the esthetics of the 
place, which has all 
been attuned to the sort 
of country living which 
was the delight of the 
owner, for the great, 
gay house parties accom- 
modated in those fifty 
and more guest rooms. 
It is all consistent, the 
comfortable, rambling 
structure occupying the 
highest point of land in 
the surrounding country 
and commanding a view 
embracing the whole es- 
tate of two hundred 
acres, the various build- 
ings on the estate, and 
the spirit upon which 
the estate has its basis. 
Since the war there has 
been so little building 


on an extensive scale 


Photo. by John Wallace Gillies WILLIAM HARMON BEERS, Architect 


MR. GEORGE DE FOREST LORD’S PORCH 


A detail of the full page reproduction of the two story porch which is shown 
in this chapter. In general character this corresponds to the one story porch 
in Mr. Schley’s residence on the opposite page 


that an estate planned with this generosity is rare indeed. 


The residence of Mr. Harry Waln Harrison at Devon, Pennsylvania, is an 


excellent example of what has been referred to in this chapter as the Philadelphia 


Colonial. In its sturdy frankness, its simplicity, its avoidance of pretence, its 


comfortable, homelike qualities, the graceful trellising of the white-washed walls 
of the Southern front, Mr. Harrison’s home recalls its affiliation with the old Wyck 


house at Germantown. 


In its use of local materials it emphasizes the ideal of the 


[ 63 J 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


DUHRING, OKIE & ZIEGLER, Architects 


RESIDENCE OF MR. HARRY WALN HARRISON, AT DEVON, PENNSYLVANIA 


In its use of local materials Mr. Harrison’s home defines attractively what is referred to in the text as the Phila- 
delphia Colonial. The charm of its comfortable, homelike qualities, the legitimate relation of the whitewashed 
exterior to the simple lines and sturdy structure, needs no emphasis 


best of the Philadelphia architects, which is to reflect in the houses they design 
both the history of their country when it was in the making and the character of 
the land on which the houses are built. It is in harmony with the neighboring 
farm houses and with Old Saint David’s Church, nestled in the valley to the north 
of the house. Located on the extreme southeastern corner of Mr. Charles C. 
Harrison’s Happy Creek Farm, it overlooks the finest sections of Radnor and New- 
town townships, Delaware County. 

Mr. Jonathan Godfrey’s home at Bridgeport, Connecticut, is another example 
of the Colonial as expressed in native rock, taken from the property itself. Here 
trimmings of brick have been used around the openings, both because of the color 
contrast it gives in its juxtaposition to the stone and because the stone is rather 
rough and not adaptable to cutting to the sharp edges required for these purposes. 
In Mr. George de Forest Lord’s home at Woodmere the Colonial type is developed 
in whitewashed brick with the familiar enriched wooden portico and the Mount 
Vernon lawn porch noted in the Collier house. This residence cannot be labeled 
as typical of any style or location. In general mass it may be thought to resemble 

[ 64 ] 


AGMIESIVLGAAIN ELOMES OF TO-DAY 


& 

oe 
pili 
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4 
ine 


“ey Wes: 


ge 


4) 
4 
, 


WALKER & GILLETTE, Architects 


RESIDENCE OF MR. SHERWOOD ALDRICH, AT GLEN COVE, LONG ISLAND 


A dignified, well ordered Colonial type which has rather more of an attitude of formality than many of the 
houses derived from this period. It is, however, formal without being severe and its setting in a landscape devel- 
oped naturalistically helps to preserve its American connotations 


the houses on the James River, though such a resemblance is a result more of acci- 
dent than intention. 

The residence of Mr. Charles Smithers at White Plains, more recently built 
than the others, is a clapboarded house founded on the Colonial and expanded to 
the proportions of a very large place. It is based on the desire of the owners for 
a wooden house of the Colonial motive which would disguise its size from the 
casual eye and retain the characteristics of a type founded on something half as 
big. In other words, the ideal for which the architect has striven is to preserve 
the image, character and charm of the smaller house and enlarge it so consistently 
that, while it is big in scale it is not big in scheme; it still remains a small compo- 
sition. Its effect from a distance is that of a more or less reasonable Colonial 
house. It was, of course, a matter of expanding things and keeping the true pro- 
portions. The Colonial house, being made up of comparatively few parts, with 
windows more or less the same size, and very few of them, the architect, in the 
Smithers’ residence, has used only the number of windows proper to the style, 
making them twice as large as the originals would have been, with panes four 


[ 65 J 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


times as big. The doors, although enormous in size, have the same number of 
panes as in the prototype. The ceilings are higher, so the cornices and mold- 
ings are deeper. The clapboards themselves are exposed ten inches to the weather, 
in place of the six inches customary in the small modern house, although, of 
course, in many of the old Colonial 
buildings the exposure was eight or ten 
inches at least. An amusing deviation 
from the Colonial in the interior of the 
residence is due to the fact that, while 
externally, for purposes of character, 
the house is of wood, inside it is divided 
into four completely fireproof sections, 
the main floor being of steel and all the 
floors of marble through the first floor. 
The consequent thick walls, impossible 
to the wooden built Colonial house, 
provide deep doorways and big reveals, 
giving a Georgian character to the inside 
of the house.- An interesting feature of 
the plan, which has nothing to do with 


Photos. by Gillies 
aan ww Serie Colonial characteristics, is the use which 


This view and that on the opposite page give 1 j 
glimpses of the two story Colonial porch on Mrs. Mr. Barber has made of a rolling site to 


Robert J. Collier’s place at Wickatunk, New Jersey, 
of which exterior and interior views are shown in this 
chapter 


put the two ends of the house in the base- 
ment, at one end of which he has built a 
huge ballroom, as separate from the residence, as undisturbing in times of large 
entertainments, as though it were in another building, being provided with its 
special entrances and exits, its own supper service, and dressing rooms. The resi- 
dence of Mr. Smithers is typical of the practicality, the excellent taste, the spa- 
ciousness of the modern American country home. 

The New Jersey home of Mr. Reeve Schley at Far Hills is of ordinary brick, 
whitewashed, with a wooden partition inside the brick to provide an air space 
which takes care of dampness and keeps the interior comfortable at all seasons. 


L 66 J 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


The drive from the main highway is through natural woods and up a winding 
hill to the driveway entrance. The house itself is set practically on the edge of 
the woods; the trees noted in the photographs of the residence have all been 
originally part of the wooded growth. The only transplanting done was in the 
instance of a few formal cedars at the 
front of the residence. 

Another illustration in this chapter, 
that of the George P. Brett place at 
Fairfield, Connecticut, departs from the 
intention of publishing only houses 
erected within the last two decades, as 
it is an original structure, or rather, a 
composite formed by the moving of two 
old Connecticut farmhouses onto a com- 
mon axis and joining with a new central 
building of harmonious type. It is in- 
cluded, specifically, because it shows so 
well, in originals, the charm of outline, 
the satisfying simplicity which is so in- 
tangible but so real a quality of the type. 


It is interesting to compare the outlines 


: aes 4 3 THE COLLIER HOME 
of this building with others in the chap- Here again are the slender wooden columns of simple 


a i fashioning and good proportions illustrated in the one 
ter, more especially the Smithers house. story porch of the Reeve Schley house and the two 
story porch of Mr. Lord’s residence 


The illustrations of interiors are 
worthy of detailed attention as they exemplify clearly the restrictions upon in- 
terior decoration imposed by a Colonial exterior. The hallway in the Collier 
house shows the color which may legitimately be injected into the Colonial pic- 
ture in an entirely fitting manner; the glint and gleam of metal and of gilding, in 
moderation, and the highly individualized wallpaper are skillfully inserted de- 
tails. A deliberately more austere, almost farm house sitting-room type of 
interior is seen by contrast in the Schley illustration farther along in the 
chapter. 
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Photo. by Sohn Wallace Gillies | JOHN RUSSELL POPE, Architect 
ANOTHER DETAIL OF MRS. COLLIER’S COUNTRY RESIDENCE 


Perhaps the porch is America’s most real contribution to architectural style, the porch of the amiable type, sug- 

gesting outdoor life and a release from ceremoniousness. As in the instance of the other porches illustrated, it 

is on a level with the lawn and has the virtue of being adapted architecturally to the genial uses for which it is 
intended 


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Architect 


RESIDENCE AT WHITE PLAINS 


wh 


tance of the expansion of the Colonial prototype to the needs of a very large house 


R 
of the clapboards, which are exposed ten inches to the weather, in place of the six inches customary 


E 


~ DUNN BARB 


Photo. by Kenneth Clark 


BALLROOM END OF MR. CHARLES SMITHERS’ 


Above the ballroom is the sun porch, one story from the ground 


THE 


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Pnoto. by Wallace Photo. Co. 


DOORWAY TO MR. JONATHAN GODFREY’S HOME AT BRIDGEPORT 


The illustration gives a very striking example of the enriched doorway which is frequently used to make a deco- 
rative motive in attractive contrast to the general simplicity of the Colonial. This is the type of door on which 
the artist artisans of the early days labored with an affection and skill we do our best to emulate 


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Photo. by John Wallace Gillies Courtesy of Town & Country 


THE LAWN FRONT OF MR. LORD’S HOME AT WOODMERE 


The connotations of the Colonial type are given here with more verity than is usually possible to a photograph; 
the intimacy, the homeliness, the friendliness of the grass-level porch, the propriety of the relation of the house 
to the setting, the honesty of such details as the slender pillars, frankly treated as wood. It is delightfully done 


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speTyory ‘NMOU F NOSTIM ‘ACOVAd ‘OQ ‘OJOYA [BINJoo}HYOIY sqqay, 


Courtesy of Town & Country PEABODY, WILSON & BROWN, Architects 


ONE OF THE PORCHES OF MR. REEVE SCHLEY’S RESIDENCE 


A charming little one story porch at the garden end of the house is illustrated in a small photograph in this 
chapter. This two story porch runs the entire width of the plan between the wings. It is on the upper level 
of the double grass terrace which was based on the natural contour of the ground 


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CHAPTER FIVE 
THE ENGLISH MANNER—PART ONE 


By houses erected in the English manner are meant those models after 
originals produced in England during the reign of the four Georges which lasted 
historically from 1714 to 1830. Houses earlier than that time are treated in this 
book stylistically in a later chapter under the heading of Elizabethan Picturesque. 
The Hanoverian century in Great Britain produced two styles in domestic archi- 
tecture very much alike at a distance, essentially different in detail, one deriving 
from the composite genius of the whole age, the other directly traceable to the 
artistic consciousness of one man, a Scotchman, Robert Adam. In both types of 
houses, the Georgian and the Adam, two elements are consciously fused, the basic 
British idea of a substantial, practicable house, with large, comfortable rooms 
adapted for elaborate and stately entertaining, combined with an Italianate over- 
lay of adornment. Both houses tend to be square, almost chunky structures with- 
out noticeable roofs and laid out with conscious symmetry. While there are 
numerous exceptions, they are generally in red brick, with or without white stone 
trimming. The Georgian house is heavier in conception and detail. Both were 
generally erected in the midst of stately private parks, on moderately level ground, 
so that to-day, when we think of the one or the other, it is almost invariably against 
such a background. So popular is the style derived from one of these two Hano- 
verian concepts, so well adapted has it shown itself to living conditions of to-day, 
that two chapters are devoted to covering modern American examples of the Adam 
and the Georgian. Adam is considered first. 

In July of 1757 Robert Adam, a young Scotchman, then in his twenty-ninth 
year, visited Spalato, a small town on the Dalmatian side of the Adriatic chiefly 

[ 84 J 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


remarkable, then as now, for containing the ruins of the palace of the Roman 
Emperor, Diocletian. Built in the first decade of the Third Century of this era, to 
cover some ten acres (that is, about two and a half city blocks as laid out in 
New York), the palace of Diocletian, though not generally known, is one of the 
architectural curiosities of Europe. It is still distinctly traceable to-day, both in 
outline and in detail; though a large part of modern Spalato has been built right 
inside of it. When one sees peasants’ huts plastered on to the walls of the ancient 
palace, a modern and a very poor native tavern inside an ancient temple, one 
wonders vaguely what they will be doing with the Woolworth Tower in sixteen 
hundred years. As the Adam style is due to its originator’s visit to this palace 
it may be worth while quoting what those infallible indicators of the generally 
accepted point of view, the editors of the Baedeker guide books, have to say 
about it: “The antiquities of Spalato are apt to disappoint. They date chiefly 
from the period of decadence and often show traces of negligence, a fact accounted 
for by the haste with which the ailing and hypochondriac emperor sought to build 
himself a retreat from the world. . . . The style is a feeble imitation of the 
Greek, yet with all their defects it must be admitted that the buildings produced an 
impression of grandeur.” 

Upon his return to England, Robert Adam published his “Ruins of the 
Palace of Diocletian,” in the preface of which he enunciated two guiding beliefs 
upon the acceptance of which he molded his own style. He spoke of his time 
(he wrote in 1764:) as being “An era no less remarkable than that of Pericles, 
Augustus and the Medicis’; and he further stated that “Architecture in a partic- 
ular Manner depends upon the Patronage of the Great, as they alone are able to exe- 
cute what the Artist plans. . . . At a time when the admiration of the Grecian 
and Roman Architecture has risen to such a height in Britain, as to banish in a 
great measure all fantastic and frivolous tastes, and to make it necessary for 
every Architect to study and imitate the ancient manner.” The patronage of the 
great did not fail Robert Adam; so successful was he that he is the only Britisher 
in architectural history who has impressed his name upon a domestic architectural 
style. Two more quotations before we leave his personality. The first is from 
the Dictionary of National Biography; it speaks of his style as marked: “‘by a fine 

[ 85 ] 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


sense of proportion and very elegant taste . . . rich but neat, refined but not 
effeminate, chaste but not severe.”” The second is from another infallible guide, 
The Encyclopedia Britannica: ““He was able so to mould and adapt the classic 
models as to create a new manner of the highest charm and distinction. Out of 
simple, curvilinear forms, of which he principally preferred the oval, he evolved 
combinations of extraordinary grace and variety. That most difficult feature, the 
column, he handled with enthusiasm and perfect mastery; he studied and wrote of 
it with minute pains, while his practise showed his grasp of the subject by all 
avoidance of bare imitation of the classic masters who first brought it to 
perfection.” 

The success of any architectural style depends always upon its congruity, 
first to its physical background, secondly, and much more importantly, to the psy- 
chological reactions of the persons for whom it is constructed. Though it is not 
often stated, there is something very much akin between the later Roman Empire, 
the Hanoverian dynasty in England, and New York in the decade of the latest 
world war. All three ages (though the early church writers would hardly let you 
think so) were those of great material prosperity, overlying, as always, a back- 
ground of menace. Such conditions always breed efhiciency and sophistication and 
an underlying mental tiredness. The young eye of the Grecian City States, of early 
Medizvalism, of Elizabethan England, of the modern Munich school of Art 
Nouveau, is able to see grace and merit in an involved, complicated, robustious, 
shouting architecture; its owner still has time for interest in complexities. By 
the time a nation or an individual (and of course every nation is a group of indi- 
viduals) has become saddled with problems of administration on a big scale, 
whether of armies and colonies or of vast industrial enterprises, domestic archi- 
tecture trends inevitably to be a solace and a refuge, not a playground of architec- 
tural gymnastics. The robustious German editors of the Austrian Baedeker (the 
quotation above is from the edition of 1905) had, apparently, precisely the Eliza- 
bethan view towards architecture. In their eyes the Rome of Diocletian, the Eng- 
land which sent Napoleon into exile, and the America which sent Pershing to 
France, are all alike periods of decadence. To the communal sense which is so 
strong a part of German city life to-day, anyone wishing to build a large, retired, 

[ 86 J 


PPV ier a eles Name DOME Pas as O) Fe al Ol DACY, 


thoroughly calm and coérdinated country estate as a retreat from the world would 
seem ailing and hypochondriac. However, they so well represent the attitude of 
mind in which the Adam style does not register that all people who dislike it will 
find its condemnation ably expressed in the Baedeker excerpt. 

In the opinion of the writer, bearing always in mind the point of view this 
book is intended to express, the Adam style as seen in such houses as the Mrs. 
Guy Fairfax Cary place, erected by John Russell Pope at Jericho, Long Island, or 
the James A. Burden house, erected by Delano & Aldrich at Syosset, is as nearly 
perfect for purposes which the modern American country house is planned to serve 
as anything may be. They affect one who appreciates their style like the writings 
of Aldous Huxley or a Botticelli painting, or Rachmaninoff at the piano, or 
Pavlowa in the dance of “The Dying Swan”—cool and sure and skilful. About 
them is artistic purity, the suavity of sophistication, the inexorable, sensitive 
symmetry betraying the utmost mastery of decorative esthetics. Successful symme- 
try is much more difficult than any individualistic program. If symmetry succeeds 
it is because the whole underlying basic thought is successful, not because of any 
individual bravura distracting attention from the lack of coherence of the whole. 
For a regiment to present arms with exact simultaneousness, three thousand bayo- 
nets flashing in the sun on the same fifth of a second, is something of a triumph; 
done raggedly it is nothing at all. There is the same sort of triumph about a per- 
fectly codrdinated Adam building. It expresses just as completely absolute mas- 
tery of detail, crisp, flashing, perfect. To the tired modern eye, the sophisticated, 
city eye, whether of Diocletian, of the owners of the British East India Company, 
or the Directors of the Amalgamated Products Corporation, its calculated precise- 
ness is pleasantly restful, restful in the certainty of inexorable good taste. 

The dangers inherent in the Adam style are similar to those of the Colonial. 
It is successful only so long as it stays sensitive. The signs of failure are evi- 
denced in a sense of wilting, of withering, of drying up. Of all things which may 
not be made successfully by the use of rubber stamps, of photostats from an ar- 
chitectural book, Adam is the most outstanding. It is entirely possible to make a 
good Gothic structure by a careful amalgamation of historic examples, a doorway 
from Chenonceaux, a tower from Azay-Le-Rideau, and various square feet of detail 

Baye dl 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


from Blois. As a matter of fact, any bus ride in New York will prove that it has 
been done several times. To make a successful modern Adam building by this 
method is unthinkable; because, as already said, Adam is successful, or a failure, 
in its basic design, not because of mass of noisy detail. The Government of the 
Republic of France so thoroughly share the opinions of the writer that they gave the 
civil decoration of the Legion of Honor to John Russell Pope, the architect, princi- 
pally for his creation of Mrs. Guy Fairfax Cary’s residence, one photograph of 
which is used as the frontispiece, the others of which immediately follow. 

The residence of Mrs. Guy Fairfax Cary at Jericho depends for its charm 
entirely on the proportion of its parts and on its rather piquant adaptations of the 
details of the Adam period. Remembering the general scheme, with its garden 
walls, its service buildings, its loggias and porticos, it comes as near to being an old 
English manor house as almost anything in this country. And it is a detail not to 
be overlooked in the sum of its perfections that it has been found possible to intro- 
duce considerable variation into the theme in spite of the nicety of the balance 
which is a basic part of the plan, founded on what may best be described as a rec- 
tangular U, with the main part of the house running east to west and the wings 
extending towards the south. A description of the garden treatment and its rela- 
tion to the house is reserved for a later chapter. As is consistent in this English 
type, the main entrance door is made the jewel of the exterior, a jewel in a good 
setting, with carefully studied detail. This is on the north side of the house and 
the illustration of this detail and the general view used in the frontispiece to the 
book reveal the long, frank windows which extend down to the grass line and are 
so genial and engaging a symbol of the attractiveness and comfort and good taste 
to be found within the residence. In spite of the old hunting print touch which 
has been given to the driveway view illustrated in the frontispiece, through the 
picturesque grouping of horses and hounds, the forecourt itself is thoroughly 
modern; its ample dimensions are determined by the smallest circle in which a 
large motor car can be turned. The picture is, however, thoroughly in spirit with 
the activities of the owner, who is one of the best horsewomen on Long Island. 

The feature of the interior of Mrs. Cary’s home is the stair hall. This is in 
the form of an ellipse with the stairs following the elliptical motif. They are exe- 


[ 88 ] 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


cuted in very light detail in wrought iron touched with tarnished gilt. This, with 
the entrance hall and a small reception room and school room, occupies the north 
side of the plan. One of the most interesting problems of the interior was the 
necessity of making a harmonious union between the entrance hall and the ellip- 
tical stairway, a difficulty which was finally surmounted by the repetition of the curve 
in the ceiling line, as will be noted in the illustration of this detail. The entrance 
hall itself is by far the most architectural feature of the interior and is very Eng- 
lish, with its marble floor diagonally patterned in black and cream and its walls done 
in soft English gray in the character of the halls of the London houses of the early 
Eighteenth Century. Altogether the house is a very complete expression of the ideal 
expressed in the quotation from the Dictionary of National Biography given above. 

The summer home of Mr. and Mrs. James A. Burden at Syosset is an Adam 
version which has come to us more or less through Southern influences. Its near- 
est prototype may be found in the Whitehall house at Annapolis, although there 
have been many variations in the development of the details. To accommodate 
itself to a slight rise in the ground the house has been planned on two different 
levels, advantage having been taken of a characteristic of the site to introduce a 
corridor over a long arcaded basement somewhat in the manner of Robert Adam’s 
famous Adelphi terrace. This corridor connects two wings, one given over to the 
service quarters, the other to the two story wing occupied by younger members of 
the family, and is shown in one of the illustrations in this chapter. Other illustra- 
tions of the exterior reveal not only the unerring taste which has molded the de- 
tails but the relationship which the craftsmanship itself has to the ideal upon 
which the style is founded. This craftsmanship means not only the delicate iron- 
work, well turned moldings or graceful carvings but the very laying of the brick 
itself, which gives as much evidence of this type of skill as the most elaborate iron 
grille. The texture of the brickwork has been made one of the principal consider- 
ations, the bricks themselves having been brought from the South and the work as 
fastidiously executed as the daintiest detail of the decoration. Of decoration, in 
the accepted meaning of the word, there is very little. The house has great breadth 
and simplicity and the architects have relied everywhere on line and proportion for 
their result, achieving the refinement and aristocratic insinuation which recalls the 


[ 89 J 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


best performances of this type. This is the house which was used as residence by the 
Prince of Wales during his visit to Long Island in August and September of 1924. 

The main entrance to the Burden residence is into a circular hall, with Mr. 
Burden’s office at one side and a small reception room at the other. This circular 
hall opens into a stair hall, curved at both ends, from which a corridor runs 
through to the wide open lawn of the south side of the house. One end of this 
stair hall is shown in an illustration. This hallway is perfectly in character with 
the traditions observed through the residence. It is nicely balanced, handsomely 
proportioned, as formal as it should be for its uses. It breaks up its simple wall 
spaces with arched openings, depending on one of the stately doorways important 
to the style, and on a gracefully turned stairway, for its architectural enrichment. 
The tessellated marble floor and a few decorative old landscapes give the right 
amount of action and color. It was on the merit, particularly, of their work in the 
Burden house that the architects were awarded the Medal of Honor of 1920 at the 
Architectural League Exhibition of 1921 by request of the Committee on Archi- 
tecture. The photographs of the library and dining room from Mrs. Willard D. 
Straight’s town house at 1130 Fifth Avenue from the same firm reveal equal re- 
sourcefulness in the development of the simpler English style, which is the basic 
principle of the Burden residence and of the residence of Mr. James Swan Frick 
near Baltimore, illustrated here and in an earlier chapter. 

The interiors of the residence in Far Hills, New Jersey, are largely originals, 
rather than interpretations of the English style. The library is practically antique, 
having been adapted from genuine old panelings, architraves, floors and mantels 
from an Eighteenth Century room, probably designed by the Brothers Adam, or, 
at least, under their direction. It is built of wood, commonly called deal, which 
was usually painted in the old days. In this instance the paint has been removed, 
the deal waxed and left in its natural tone and color which, as the result of age, 
has become a soft, mellow, nut brown. How well it is in character with the inte- 
riors illustrated in this chapter proves the rightness of our modern feeling, our 
conscientiousness in sustaining these inheritances. In the dining room the old and 
the new are sensitively combined. The mantel is an original, formerly in the 
Links Club and removed to make way for the large portrait of Mr. C. B. 

[ 90 ] 


ApVareneCeAWNest O MES: Of bO=DA Y 
Macdonald by Gari Melchers. The paintings and other details are old. The 


sideboard, surmounted by a canvas by Abraham Cooper, belonged to Governor 
John Cotton Smith. The Lowestoft platters are parts of two services, one owned 
by the Earl of Strangford, when British Minister to Portugal, about 1800, the 
other by the Perrine family of Trenton, New Jersey. Good things have been put 
into this residence and excellent judgment has disposed them gracefully. These 
illustrations give additional proofs of the handsomeness of a style as much 


appreciated in our country in the present as in the early days of our development. 


The simple English styles, as has been insinuated, are not for all tempera- 


Photo. by M. E. Hewitt DELANO & ALDRICH, Architects 


HOME OF MR. AND MRS. JAMES A. BURDEN AT SYOSSET 


This detail of the long, arcaded basement running below a corridor connecting two wings is a keynote in itself 
to the virtues of the Adam style. There is a charm which exists in spite of the almost monastic restraint, a 
rhythm founded on the arches and the circular, port-hole like windows 


[ 91] 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


JOHN RUSSELL POPE, Architect 


RESIDENCE OF MR. AND MRS. OGDEN L. MILLS AT WESTBURY, LONG ISLAND 
A very successful expression of that style which is marked by a “fine sense of proportion and very elegant taste.” 


vt is Uvch ietting with a wisdom and diserimination ‘which leaves ta, spproprigtencis anges aaa 
ments. The old New Yorker, or the dweller in any of the larger cities, whose 
traditions are associated with the decorous interiors of the brown stone fronts of 
sixty years ago, ought to find them to his liking. I myself remember with much 
pleasure the cleanly austerity, the gentlemanly propriety, of the walls in my grand- 
father’s residence on East Twenty-third Street, skilfully executed in the painted- 
paneling style, the foundation gray and the panel outline in a rather distinguished 
green providing a most suitable background for the suite of three “parlors” de- 
voted solely to formal uses and at the height of their glory during the festivities. 
of New Year’s Day. Such a house was essentially Georgian and English in its con- 
notations. To a descendent of the family which this house adequately expressed, 
the Georgian style, which is to say, also, the Adam, may very well seem soothing, 
delightful, a refuge. Or, equally rightfully, such a descendent might go off at a 
tangent and adore the picturesque or the Mediterranean type of building. It is all 
a matter of temperament. The thing is to know what you like, and to live in it, 
when it is possible. The stupidest thing in the world is to spend the major part 
of your time in a house to which you are temperamentally opposed. It is a blessed 
thing that all of us do not think alike, else would we perish from very lack of con- 
flict, and from stagnation of ideas. 


[ 92 ] 


Soi ne, ss oe) ae 
JOHN RUSSELL POPE, Architect 


DOORWAY OF MR. OGDEN L. MILLS’ LONG ISLAND HOME 


A detail of the Adam manner which illustrates with special pertinency a quotation included in the text: 

“That most difficult feature, the column, he handled with enthusiasm and perfect mastery; he studied 

and wrote of it with minute pains, while his practise showed his grasp of the subject by all avoidance 
of bare imitation of the classic masters who first brought it to perfection” 


JOHN RUSSELL POPE, Architect 


DOORWAY OF MR. JAMES SWAN FRICK’S BALTIMORE HOME 


The pilasters and columns in this more formal entrance are fluted in distinction to the plain pilasters 

of the garden front. The treatment of the capitals, as is observed, is the same. The doorway 

with the broken pediment and urn, here as in the entrance to Mr. Mills’ residence, is a delightful 
inheritance of this Eighteenth Century English tradition 


JOHN RUSSELL POPE, Architect 


MR. JAMES SWAN FRICK’S HOME NEAR BALTIMORE 


It is interesting to compare the treatment of the pilasters here with the columns of the 

doorway of Mr. Ogden L. Mills’ residence. There is the same sensitive use of the Pom- 

peian motive in the capitals, a resemblance which is still more emphasized in the more 
imposing composition of the entrance on the driveway front of Mr. Mills’ home 


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Photo. by M. E. Hewitt DELANO & ALDRICH, Architects 


A MANTEL DETAIL IN THE RESIDENCE OF MR. AND MRS. BURDEN 


A union of the British and American insistence on comf rt and the Italian feeling for decoration is expressed in 
this composition of a fire ready for lighting and a man el and overmantel carved after the manner of the Ital- 
ian Renaissance. The handsome paneling provides an ileal background for the very fine carving 


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JOHN RUSSELL POPE, Architect 


DOORWAY OF MRS. GUY FAIRFAX CARY’S COUNTRY HOME 


This illustration of the north side of the house shows the personal and entertaining manner in which the details 

of the Adam period have been adapted. The door is the jewel of the house, engagingly set back of the wrought 

iron lantern and a frame of Dorothy Perkins roses which have had a chance to mature since the photograph was 
taken. It is a composition worth studying 


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pouypoiy ‘AdOd TIASSNU NHOL 


JOHN RUSSELL POPE, Architect 


THE STAIR HALL IN MRS. GUY FAIRFAX CARY’S RESIDENCE 
This hall is in the form of an ellipse, with the stairs following the elliptical motif and executed in very light 
detail in wrought iron touched with tarnished gilt. It is typically English, with its marble floor diagonally pat- 


terned in black and cream and its walls done in soft English gray in the character of the halls of the London 
houses of the early Eighteenth Century 


DELANO & ALDRICH, Architects 


LIBRARY IN THE RESIDENCE OF MRS. WILLARD D. STRAIGHT 


In the library the influence is definitely of the Palladian type which we know as Adam, As in much of the work 

done by the architects of this house there is an insinuation of the French grace which, in this instance, is har- 

monious in spirit to the restraint of the English style allied to it. There is an impression of scholarly rendering 
and of correctness in the proportions and in the refinement of the detail 


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THE ENGLISH MANNER—PART TWO 


In the preceding chapter was considered the work of the one Georgian 
architect who achieved individuality, in fact of the only British architect who has 
ever become popularly known as the creator of a domestic architectural style. 
This chapter considers the architecture produced during the reign of the four 
Georges which cannot be assigned to the Brothers Adam or their influence. As 
said in the opening of the previous chapter, Georgian domestic architecture is an 
expression of the attitude towards life of the average Englishman of the time. In 
their way the innumerable Georgian palaces and mansions which dot England are 
as definite a monument of a period as are the Roman wall or the Tower of London. 

The Eighteenth Century was the first time in which England was not only 
prosperous but fully sensed her own success. The Elizabethan age saw her emer- 
gence into the limelight as a world power and marked the approaching end of the 
long period of civil wars which had kept the energies of her young men too fully 
occupied with internecine warfare to think much about economic production. 
The Seventeenth Century, economically speaking, was a transition period, a steady 
economic growth, a period of discovery and colonization, of the foundation of eco- 
nomic outposts, mingling with the last of her civil wars and religious disturbances. 
The Eighteenth Century ended fighting on English soil, in spite of melodramatic 
Jacobite raids and all the other moving picture accessories of the late Stuart tra- 
dition. English attention was occupied almost exclusively with commercial growth 
in one form or another. Some of the great noble landed proprietors retaining from 
feudal times manorial rights, port rights and the ground ownership in cities, found 
themselves, in the surrounding accretion of commercial values, forced up into 

[108 J 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


the position of multi-millionaires. We like to think that huge fortunes, founded on 
real estate, or the possession of natural resources, such as coal mines, steel mines 
or petroleum wells, are a purely American discovery of the last three generations, 
but a glimpse at the stately private houses erected in England at the beginning of 
the Eighteenth Century, just before the period of which we are writing, such places 
as Chatsworth, Castle Howard, Wentworth Woodhouse and Prior Park, proves that 
they had done some discovering of their own at a time when Indians were still living 
in Yonkers. 

The really enormous palaces (for no other word adequately describes them) 
mentioned above are not under consideration in discussion of the Georgian style. 
But their existence has to be realized as the most perfect expression of the ideal of 
the age, the buildings which architects and owners had in the background of their 
consciousness when they erected their relatively smaller, but still quite elaborate 
houses. Anybody who is anxious to visualize this phase of the Georgian era should 
take the pains to do some reading about Blenheim Palace, the very exuberant 
building which a grateful nation presented to the First Duke of Marlborough for 
the series of victories which first showed the British ability to interfere decisively 
in questions of the Continental balance of power. As a state capitol building it 
would be adequate; as a private residence it is overwhelming—there is no other 
word to describe it. It has even passed into literature; and this book submits a 
claim to being the first published since its erection which mentions Blenheim 
without quoting Pope’s couplets descriptive thereof. 

These buildings, therefore, being founded on a success complex, were 
planned very consciously and elaborately for the outward visible manifestation 
of an inward realization of prosperity—that is for entertaining on a very 
grand scale indeed. Louis XIV had just been gathered to his fathers but he 
left behind him the tradition of the grand manner and England took that 
motto for her own during the Eighteenth Century. It really needed the Ameri- 
can Revolution to shake her out of it. The average Georgian house might not 
have the pillars, porticoes and columns of Blenheim, but it had the tradition of 
entertainment. That was the first thing owner and architect considered in planning 
both exterior and interior. 

[ 109 J 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


This brings us to one of the really important contributions of the Georgian 
age to domestic architecture, the rise of the interior, at least the public rooms 
thereof, to a place where as much care and affection were lavished upon them as 
upon the exterior. A medizval castle was a wall with some barracks and a gen- 
eral assembly room inside. So, to all general intents and purposes, were the first 
early Renaissance structures. It took architects a long, long time to realize that it 
was possible to consider the rooms inside a building as of equal importance, with 
the same rights to consideration, as the picturesque quality of the exterior. It 
would be absurd to claim that this was achieved in Georgian times; but a start 
was certainly made in that direction, and when one thinks of a Georgian house 
to-day one is very much inclined to think of its dining room almost before one 
thinks of its exterior. | 

The contribution the middle class brought to the Georgian style, as distin- 
guished from the structures of the higher nobility, which were redolent of a pre- 
sumably perfectly proper ostentation, was an ineradicable sense about them of solid 
comfort; in fact if one were compelled to devise a slogan covering Georgian archi- 
tecture in general those two words would as well fit the necessities as any that 
could be selected. Robert Louis Stevenson, that extremely capable characterizer 
of mood, has expressed this feeling very ably: “Somehow I feel glad when I get 
among the quiet, Eighteenth Century buildings, in cosy places with some elbow 
room about them, after the older architecture. This other is bedeviled and fur- 
tive; it seems to stoop. . . . I do not know if I have yet explained to you the sort 
of loyalty, or urbanity, that there is about the Eighteenth Century house to my 
mind; the spirit of a country orderly and prosperous, a flavour of the presence of 
magistrates and well-to-do merchants in big wigs, something certain and civic and 
domestic is all about these quiet, staid, shapely houses, with no character but their 
exceeding shapeliness, and the comely external utterance that they make of their 
internal comfort.” 

In addition to setting forth so decisively the aspect of comfort of the Georgian 
house, Stevenson has indicated another of its indispensable qualities, its dignity. 
The Elizabethan noble may have been a bit of a swashbuckler. He may have sailed, 
or have thought longingly of sailing, with Sir Francis Drake to the Spanish Main. 

110 J 


AMERDLGAN HOMES OF T70=D AY 


His grandson in the succeeding century took shares in a commercial company 
founded for the same purpose and stayed at home to attend to administrative detail 
and clip the Eighteenth Century equivalent of coupons. He took for his motto 
those memorable lines of Andrew Marvell describing the beheading of Charles I: 
He nothing common did, or mean, 
Upon that memorable scene. 
As a codification of impeccable social conduct, under peculiarly trying circum- 
stances, those two lines have never been surpassed. They have a flavor most 
especially appropriate to Georgian architecture. One feels that a proper Georgian 
building would shudder all through its thousands of tons of brick and white stone 
were things common or mean, social errors, committed within its walls. 

The architect and the owner who had the three ideals of entertaining, of com- 
fort and of dignity in mind would almost automatically think along the lines of 
an established convention, a convention founded on very conscious symmetry. A 
Georgian house is almost invariably founded upon the quadrilateral, either a large 
single block or a symmetrical arrangement of smaller oblongs around a large cen- 
tral base. Decorative detail is Italian in origin, with the robustiousness of the 
Italian peninsular refined by transmission through France, and slightly congealed 


From a drawing by O. R. Eggers JOHN RUSSELL POPE, Architect 


LONG ISLAND RESIDENCE OF MR. AND MRS. MARSHALL FIELD 


Mr. Field’s property consists of two thousand acres stretching straight across the neck from Lloyd’s Harbor to 
Long Island Sound. The house is of the reserved Georgian type seen in other residences by the same architect. 
This front has been cleared to make a handsome lawn, preserving some very fine specimens of trees 


C111] 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


DELANO & ALDRICH, Architects 
RESIDENCE OF MR. AND MRS. WILLIAM B. OSGOOD FIELD AT LENOX 


“High Lawn House” illustrates very perfectly the Stevenson quotation given in the text: “something certain and 

civic and domestic is all about these quiet, staid, shapely houses, with no character but their exceeding shapeli- 

ness and the comely external utterance that they make of their internal comfort.” Certainly it is a very true 
expression of the Georgian 


by transposition to the cooler British background. Just as one cannot think of 
Elizabethan architecture without remembering that the young Elizabethan noble 
delighted in making the grand tour and bringing back Italian workmen in his 
train, so in the Georgian period certain Italian signatures, even that of the Six- 
teenth Century Palladio, are written large across the facade. 

Nothing in the preceding paragraph, however, should tempt one to think 
that a Georgian building is an easy thing to produce architecturally. To be suc- 
cessful its architect needs enthusiasm, intelligence, and entire sympathy with the 
period. Otherwise its symmetry degenerates into neatness, its serenity becomes 
stodginess, its fastidiousness insipidity, its restraint baldness, its severity dullness, 
its splendor ostentation, its virility heaviness, and its charm calculated coquetry. 
For its birthright of sober dignity is substituted an air of laborious elegance. 
Properly conceived, with the appropriate amenities of design and careful propor- 
tioning, it makes an appeal to the modern cultivated taste of surprising numerical 
manifestation. A successful modern Georgian house must have an underlying 
strength, sturdiness, power, and, even though this may seem a strange adjective to 
use, a hint of vivacity. The very worst thing you can call a Georgian house is to 
describe it as inoffensive. It must always interest. 

C112 J 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


The characteristics of Georgian domestic architecture as expressed in the pre- 
ceding paragraphs are perfectly observed in the residence of Mr. William B. Osgood 
Field, ““High Lawn House,” at Lenox, Massachusetts. It has dignity, solidity and 
balance; it is classic but obviously British. It is handsome without being pompous. 
In plan it is a plain, well proportioned house, relying for its decoration on the 
quoins, the cornice, the important doorway feature, the disposition of the windows, 
the general feeling for formal beauty which young English architects brought 
back with so much enthusiasm from their art-inspired journeys to Italy. 

Mr. Truman H. Newberry’s residence, at Grosse Pointe Farms, near Detroit, 
is erected on one of the ribbon strip farms, with a narrow frontage of three hun- 
dred feet and a depth of something over a mile which is a legitimate heritage from 
the French settlers who, in the early part of the Eighteenth Century, made this 
thrifty division of the water front on Lake St. Clair. Incidentally it has given the 
architects of residences in this neighborhood an unusual problem, both in the lay- 


ing out of the grounds and in the planning of the house. The house, quite natu- 


TROWBRIDGE & ACKERMAN, Architects 


RESIDENCE OF MR. AND MRS. TRUMAN H. NEWBERRY NEAR DETROIT 


This residence at Grosse Pointe Farms has been built for comfort, with generous facilities for entertaining. 

There is a breakfast room overlooking Lake St. Claire; there is a large music room with a fine organ which can be 

enjoyed by guests inside and outside of the house, in the music court, the loggias, on the terraces. It is one of 
those “cosy places with some elbow room about them” 


elise 


AMER DT GCAN FT TIO MEST O he Tr Drv 


JOHN RUSSELL POPE, Architect 


THE HOME OF MR. AND MRS. ANDREW VARICK STOUT AT RED BANK, NEW JERSEY 


The central portion of the building recalls in a very marked degree the street facade of an old house in Downing 
Street, Farnham, built in the midst of the real Georgian period. The wing to the right of the illustration consists 
of an open porch which is as much a part of the garden as the house. It is hospitable and charming 


rally, resolved itself into the handsome type of Georgian red brick and limestone 
most appropriate to this prescribed setting. It answers to the suggestion of com- 
fort and the hospitable insinuation referred to earlier in the chapter. Externally it 
bears a gracious promise of such agreeable and pleasant living as is possible through 
our modern American knowledge of what is convenient and charming in an inte- 
rior. The interior plan notes, for instance, such features as a breakfast room in 
one of the loggia wings, in response to a preference of long standing on the part of 
the owners for a view of the lake, while breakfasting. It also provides for the en- 
joyment of music through the medium of a large music room with a fine organ, 
behind a carved screen. This room opens into a pergola and music court and is 
accessible from the loggia so that many guests can profit by the concerts given 
there. The house and the grounds have been definitely planned for generous 
entertaining for which the style of the residence is so admirably adapted. The set- 
ting of the house has been developed to lay emphasis on broad open lawn spaces, 
on the tall trees and heavy shrubs used for framing the smooth turf, on the seclu- 
sion made possible to the lawn adjoining the house through the wide spreading 
elms, bordered with undergrowth planting, which shade the approach drive. The 
whole is serene, settled and stately, as befits the building itself. There is the most 


careful consideration of the relation of all of the garden landscape to the ideals on 
C114 J 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


which the architecture of the residence itself is based. Everything is designed for 
symmetry. Also it is all enormously practical. 

‘Brick House,’ the home of Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Varick Stout at Red 
Bank, New Jersey, is another attractive example of a Georgian translation by an 
American architect who has proved his inventive faculty in other English themes 
illustrated in the preceding chapter, notably in the residence of Mrs. Guy Fairfax 
Cary. The central portion of the building recalls in a very marked degree the 
street facade of an old house in Downing Street, Farnham, built in the midst of 
the real Georgian period, at a time when the traditions of the Georgian style were 
being more or less unconsciously developed. The entrance doorway, which is 
shown in one of the illustrations, has the characteristics of its prototype and sug- 


gests a privacy for which most English entrances are noted. This privacy is pos- 


end 


WALKER & GILLETTE, Architects 
THE RESIDENCE OF MR. AND MRS. JAMES NORMAN HILL AT GLEN HEAD 


“Big Tree Farm,” Mr. Hill’s Long Island summer home; the garden front. A very original and personal con- 
tribution to the Georgian houses in this country. It is thoroughly illustrative of that “spirit of a country orderly 
and prosperous, a flavour of the presence of magistrates and well-to-do merchants” 


C115 ] 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


CHARLES BARTON KEEN DELANO & ALDRICH 


ILLUSTRATING TWO EXTREMES OF THE GECRGIAN STYLE 


At the left Mr. Charles I. Corby’s home at Garrett Park, Maryland, provides an example of the very elaborate 

doorway in contrast to the simple doorway of Mr. James A. Burden’s residence. These two photographs show 

what widely different expressions of temperament may be derived from the same thing. Due allowance should 
be made, of course, for the fact that one is the main, one the garden entrance 


sible because of the entrance through the typical square English forecourt, devel- 
oped before the days of automobiles. Other details remind us again of the 
progress which had been made in the Italianizing of the English taste of the 
period. It is not only on its entrance doorway or its graceful arches, or its digni- 
fied proportions that the architect relies for the appeal of Mr. Stout’s residence; 
much deliberation has been given to the materials, an important item, as observed 
in the home of Mr. and Mrs. James A. Burden in the preceding chapter, where the 
special brick, and the laying of it, has been a very serious matter. In the present 
instance considerable thought has likewise been given to the texture of the brick 
and slate and to the judicious use of iron and stone with a resulting interest 
which is not the least item in a successful architectural whole. It is this regard for 
the selection and working of materials which takes from this American improvisa- 
Fan kiss, 


ASTER RTCAIN, HOMES OF TO-DAY 


tion the dryness and lack of character found in some of the earlier and less imagi- 
native imitations of the period. 

The residence of Mr. and Mrs. Lathrop Brown, “Land of Clover,” at St. 
James, Long Island, is an example of the use of the curved arcade of which there 
are so many classic examples in British architecture, notably Prior Park, near 


Bath. The plan is seen in illustrations from Isaac Ware’s “Complete Body of 


PEABODY, WILSON & BROWN, Architects 


DETAIL OF THE LATHROP BROWN HOME 


An attractive small composition, with the little ship of 

learning, bearing knowledge to the pupils, giving a 

typically Georgian touch of decoration above the win- 
dow of the schoolroom 


Architecture”’ published in 1756. In 
those days the left hand block, at the 


end of one of the arcades, contained the 
kitchens, at a most inconvenient and 


unpractical distance from the house; 


the right hand block housed the stables, 


JOHN RUSSELL POPE, Architect 


MR. GEORGE HEWITT MYERS’ RESIDENCE 


Mr. Myers’ home at Watch Hill, Rhode Island, has 

an entrance which provides a very delightful illustra- 

tion of the Palladian motive which Adam made so 
essential a feature of the English style 


leone 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


Se ay" Sy 
ARTHUR S. VERNAY, Decorator 


MRS. WILLIAM HAYWARD’S LIBRARY 


The library in Mrs. Hayward’s town house at 1051 Fifth 
Avenue is an accurate copy from an old English house, the 
woodwork of specially selected oak. It is in the elaborate 
Georgian style which is in interesting contrast to the simpler 
Adam of Mr. Frick’s library which is shown on the opposite 


page 


in rather unpleasant proximity to 
the residence. In Mr. Brown’s resi- 
dence the kitchen subscribes to 
tradition by being in somewhat its 
former position except that it is lo- 
cated in the arcade itself, and there- 
fore in more comfortable relation to 
the dining-room, the building which 
forms the left hand block being 
given over to servants’ dining-room, 
sitting room and the children’s 
school room seen in one of the il- 
lustrations. The opposite corridor 
contains a sun room with the build- 
ing pendant to the school room oc- 
cupied by a very large library. To 
express it according to our Ameri- 
can traditions, it is very Southern, 
having been inspired by the owner’s 
frequent visits to the South. Here, 
too, a special point is found in the 
hand-made brick, made in Virginia. 

Mrs. Henry P. Davison’s home, 
‘*Peacock Point,” at Locust Valley, 
Long Island, illustrated with four 


views in this chapter, is a rather 


richly conceived Georgian type, a house of substantial aspect and a good deal of 


style. The exterior details shown in two of the photographs give a key to the re- 


strained exuberance of the ornament of the doorway and the bigness of the decora- 


tive conception as indicated by the terrace, guarded by amorini representing the 


seasons. Mrs. Davison’s residence has little that is in sympathy with the asceti- 


cism of the Adam houses; it is absolute Georgian in the more resolutely British 


[118 ] 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


understanding of the term. It is, 
obviously, not the heavy type of 
Georgian used in the larger houses 
in England; it has been tempered 
to American preferences. The din- 
ing-room, especially, is very grace- 
fully designed and executed, with 
just enough enrichment of the fire- 
place and overmantel composition, 
of the nornice and the cealing, to 
provide, with the paneled walls, an 
interior of considerable charm and 
a great deal of character. How far 
from the Grinling Gibbons develop- 
ment of the Georgian it is, is real- 
ized in comparison to the original 
English room incorporated into Mrs. 
Henry Phipps’ Fifth Avenue resi- 
dence, as shown in one of the illus- 
trations. The living room at “Pea- 
cock Point” is another one of those 
large, well lighted, comfortable 
rooms which has an open fire and 
inviting divans as its focal point in 
weather when the activities are not 
mainly concerned with outdoor 


amusements. 


JOHN RUSSELL POPE, Architect 


MR. JAMES SWAN FRICK’S LIBRARY 


The detail of the library in Mr, Frick’s home near Baltimore 

and the corner shown of Mrs. Hayward’s library on the oppo- 

site page have been selected because they are ideal back- 

grounds for fine books. The period which governs them was 

a reading period; every good Georgian house has a library. 
These are fine examples 


As this book is being written the estate of Mr. and Mrs. Marshall Field at 
Lloyd’s Neck is being developed by John Russell Pope into one of the most impor- 


tant country gentleman’s homes along Georgian lines in America. It is on a mag- 


nificent scale in point of size and completeness and is as self-contained as a huge 


English estate with its surrounding villages, or a great Southern plantation in the 


[119 J 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


prosperous days. The estate consists of two thousand acres extending straight across 
the neck, from Lloyd’s Harbor to Long Island Sound. The character of the beautiful 
rolling property was wild woodland interspersed with flat areas of farmland. This 
necessitated a good deal of clearing of woods and underbrush but provided great 
treasure in the way of fine trees and an opportunity for effective vistas. The 
main entrance to the estate was made off the shore road along the Harbor. The gate 
lodge to this drive, which is reserved for the cars of the owners and their guests, 
is an old Revolutionary cottage. On this drive is the winter cottage used by the 


family as a week-end residence when the big house is not open. Passing the win- 


ter cottage, the next building on the drive is the polo stable in which are kept 


DELANO & ALDRICH, Architects 
RESIDENCE OF MR. AND MRS. JAMES A. BURDEN 


When you think of a Georgian house you remember particularly the dining-room because it is a style which es- 

pecially is suited to functions. The illustration above is not only a sensitive rendition of a style that, above all, 

suggests cultivated tastes and the intuition that makes for personality, but it is representative, with its ship’s 
model and old prints, of a time when Great Britain made her money mainly out of ships 


L 120 ] 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


only polo ponies and riding horses. The drive continues to the main house, lo- 
cated on the highest point in the property, with the main rooms overlooking a long 
slope; a clearing through the woods with a fresh water pond at the end of the 
vista. A minor road off the main road leads down to Long Island Sound and the 
private bathing beach and outdoor tennis courts. A road is also developed at the 
West to connect with the channel through the marshland shown in one of the 
illustrations. 


Returning to the main highway, at Lloyd’s Harbor, it is interesting to follow 


WALKER & GILLETTE, Architects 


RESIDENCE OF MR. AND MRS. THOMAS W. LAMONT 


The dining room in the Lamont town house at 107 East 70th Street is a very fine expression of an English style, 
somewhat earlier than the Georgian, which is probably more correctly assigned to Queen Anne. Its details are 
beautifully done. The crystal chandelier is in exactly the proper proportion to the size and character of the 
room; it is sufficiently important, yet does not overload it. ‘The restrained mantel is a definite art contribution 


al 21 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


the service drive, guarded by the engineer’s cottage which acts as a gate lodge. 
The first group of buildings on this drive are three double cottages in which some 
of the help are housed. The next group is the very important and up to date 
farm group. As is frequently the custom in an estate of this size and character, 
the architecture of the buildings in these utilitarian groups is more informal than 
that of the main house and its immediate buildings. The owner’s residence and 
the adjacent garage, containing accommodations for the housing of resident and 


visiting chauffeurs, are of the reserved Georgian type observed in other work by 


ALLEN & COLLENS, Architects 


THE TOWN HOUSE OF MR. AND MRS. ARTHUR CURTISS JAMES 


This dining room in Mr. James’ residence at 39 East 69th Street, New York, is the first example given in the 
book of the elaborately carved woodwork and the highly ornamental ceiling symbolic of the time and atten- 
tion lavished on such rooms in the Georgian period. The walls are paneled in English limewood which is adapted 
to the bold carving and has a golden tone which makes it a rich background for Sir Joshua Reynolds 


ea 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


the same architect. The polo stables are also designed in this group. The mate- 
rials are brick with limestone trim. The farm buildings and other units in the 
utilitarian group take their inspiration from the Revolutionary cottage, with its 
wide shingles. All are shingled with big exposure to the weather with the excep- 
tion of the winter cottage, which is of stone. The shingled buildings are painted 
white and the general scheme is the informal, rambling Colonial farm type. In- 
corporated somewhere in the plan is a big formal vegetable and early flower 
garden, enclosed on four sides with a high brick wall. Immediately in back of 
that are the large greenhouses. 

A very important item in the planning of the Field estate has been to pro- 
vide, as far as possible, individual cottages for those connected with the estate. 
The engineer’s cottage has already been mentioned. The gardener’s cottage is in 
the neighborhood of the garden and greenhouses. The estate manager’s office is 
in one wing of the stables and the head groom has his quarters in another. The 
group of three cottages houses six families. In connection with the garage is 
another cottage for the head mechanic. Somewhere in the wooded land is the 
cottage for the gamekeeper and his family. It is all very charming and very 
human. It is not surprising to find that the estate has a water system more ex- 
tensive than that required by many a small town. In these days of overcrowding 
and difficult living there is pleasure even in the idea of a return to the country 
squire manner of living, with its pleasant relationships between the owners and 
their employees. Mr. Field’s chief interest is in his stables, which are being de- 
veloped into something quite special. It is a pleasure to be able to include three 
of Mr. Eggers’ drawings of the Field estate in this volume. It is a matter of regret 
that the estate had not progressed to the point of photographs at the date of 
publication. 


[ 123 ] 


TT f 


"22 


at F 
a ESS! Siwene as Og meas 


Ye, * of 


WALKER & GILLETTE, Architects 


THE JAMES NORMAN HILL RESIDENCE AT GLEN HEAD, LONG ISLAND 


This photograph is inserted partly because it shows so well the very simple treatment of the terrace which is an 
essential part of the Georgian house. It will be interesting to compare it with the more elaborate terrace of 
the Henry P. Davison house shown a few pages later. The general front view is shown on an earlier page 


DOORWAY OF THE HOME OF MR. AND MRS. LATHROP BROWN 


This doorway should be compared with those in the previous chapter; it stands with reluctant feet where the 

Adam and the Georgian meet, The prototype of this very fine piece of work is found in the celebrated door of 

Westover on the James River. It is illustrated again in the view of the central building of the Lathrop Brown 
composition 


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JOHN RUSSELL POPE, Architect 


es 


Sonos aoa, LRP NRE. 
Photo. by John Wallace Gillies 


RESIDENCE OF MR. AND MRS. ANDREW VARICK STOUT 


Here, as in other instances, it will be noted that the doorway is an index to the style, marking it as Adam or 

Georgian. It follows a progressive arrangement in the book, being a more elaborate version than those shown 

earlier. It has that naive heaviness of the English Georgian which is not recalled very extensively in our Co- 
lonial exterior details, The simple treatment of the iron railing at the sides is very good Georgian 


Photo. by John Wallace Gillies WALKER & GILLETTE, Architects 


RESIDENCE OF MRS. HENRY P. DAVISON AT LOCUST VALLEY 


The entrance doorway of Mrs. Davison’s Long Island home, “Peacock Point,” has the connotation of splendor 

held in check. It has great vigor and is a key to what might be called the masculinity of the architecture as ex- 

pressed in the illustration of the terrace. It has a majesty, a grandeur which is thoroughly consistent with the 
decorous welcome which is a distinguishing trait of the style 


WALKER & GILLETTE, Architects 


TERRACE OF MRS. HENRY P. DAVISON’S RESIDENCE 


Here is seen the characteristic touch of the Amorini, representing the seasons, borrowed from the Italian 

and linked up with the stately Georgian house in the background. There is a feeling of integrity in this 

detailed view which indicates the virtues of the entire house. It is ardent, earnest and spirited without 
losing that solid, structural force which is the real basis of the popularity of the style 


Photo. by John Wallace Gillies 


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Photo. by John Wallace Gillies FREDERICK STERNER, Architect 


RESIDENCE OF MR. AND MRS. CHARLES MATHER MacNEILL 


A detail of the New York Home of Mr. and Mrs. MacNeill at 15 East 91st Street which is a very good example 

of the interior work done in the Georgian houses which, when copied by our artist-artisans, was used as exterior 

designs on our most beautiful Colonial homes. These adaptations by our imaginative, well trained and skillful 
Colonial carpenters remain our truest and most vital art expression 


poceireaet sont St ig A RP a 2 OEE AE 


* 


TROWBRIDGE & ACKERMAN, Architects 
RESIDENCE OF MR. AND MRS. TRUMAN H. NEWBERRY 


An example in a dining room at Grosse Pointe Farms, near Detroit, of the high relief carving and the heavily 

ornamented ceiling of this period. It is interesting to note that in the latter the monogram of the owner has been 

incorporated in the design in the true Georgian spirit. The opulence of the painting of Venice is well suited to 
the character of the decoration 


RESIDENCE OF MRS. HENRY PHIPPS IN NEW YORK 


Mrs. Phipps’ town residence is at 1063 Fifth Avenue. This is an original Grinling Gibbons room which was 

brought over from England and set inside the dining room first designed for the residence. It is interesting to 

contemplate our own reserve in comparison to the exuberance of the carvings of the woodwork and those of 
the plaster ceiling’ designed to harmonize with it 


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CHAPTER SEVEN 


THE ITALIAN DERIVATIVE 


T HE latest importation into the gallery of American domestic architectural 
styles is the Italian, and that there are more reasons for making it welcome than 
because it is a stranger may be seen from an analysis first of Italy’s relation to 
the world of art expression since the Dark Ages and of our own present attitude 
towards the problems of living. When our own Nordic ancestors rambled south 
from the Teutoberg Forest and the great open spaces where men were men, or the 
equivalent in those days, and effectually ended the pax Romana, which may have 
been effete but at least had achieved the arts of peace, including architecture and 
sanitation, they substituted therefor a vast turbulence so wholly preoccupied with 
the problem of killing one’s neighbor before he killed you that we have called 
these eight hundred years or so the Dark Ages. Domestic architecture could 
hardly flourish in a time in which there were so few people who could read and 
write that they gathered themselves together in monasteries for mutual solace 
and protection. 

The first country in the Western world which came up for air above the 
waters of productive oblivion was Italy. Italy is the country that reintroduced 
all of the gentler arts to Western Europe, painting, sculpture, architecture, liter- 
ature, conversation, table manners, and the general code of civilized intercourse 
which to-day we call culture. . Italy’s political history, if we may trust John 
Addington Symonds, was so rapturously melodramatic during the period we are 
describing, the Renaissance, and has been so eagerly devoured by a naturally sen- 
sation-loving public, that the general fact that Italians antedated the other coun- 
tries of Europe by some two centuries in their attitude towards the amenities of life, 

[ 138 ] 


ne viteen CoA Nee OM eS! OF TO-DAY 


is not as generally known as it deserves to be. During that general rediscovery of 
coordination in government and the arts of living, which we call the Renaissance, 
it took a hundred years for the Italian attitude of mind to cross the Alps and an- 
other hundred to cross the Channel. 

Since the downfall of the Roman Empire of the West the Italian Peninsula 
has never been able to exert a predominant military influence in the battles of 
Europe. Indeed, until within our fathers’ generation, it has been as much the 
cockpit of Europe as the fields of Flanders. But, on the other hand, ever since 
the dawn of the Thirteenth Century, it has been the mental Great White Way of all 
Europe. As soon as the contiguous Northern neighbors of Italy could travel they 

came down to Italy for a mental joy ride. At first, that being the custom of those 
| sturdy, two-fisted, he-men days, they came down in armies bent on loot; but the 
chief things they took back with them were a mental impression of a more desirable 
civilization, and sculptures, paintings and manuscripts which distinctly startled 
Northern Europe. As generations passed, the North Europeans dropped down 
into Italy as tourists. Earlier mention has been made of the desire of the Eliza- 
bethan smart set to undertake a Grand Tour in Italy and of the resultant importa- 
tion of Italian ideals, ideas and artisans into England. This infiltration of Italianate 
standards northwards was most complete and most successful first in France. 
Indeed so successful was Louis XIV in adapting Italian ideals of manner with living 
conditions that, aided by the greater political unity which France achieved two cen- 
turies before Italy, there has been established in France a rival to the Italian claims 
for mental hegemony of the European world which still stands as an important 
competitor. | 

With the exception of the Vienna-Munich school of Art Nouveau and of 
North European Medieval Gothic there remains to-day an Italian finger in every 
architectural pie compiled north of the Alps. Of the four codifications of architec- 
tural orders mentioned in an earlier chapter, those of Vitruvius, Palladio, Vignola 
and Sir William Chambers, it is quite significant that two out of the four developed 
in eighteen hundred years are by Sixteenth Century Italians. It is also signifi- 
cant that the most recent adaptation of the Greek and Roman principles as codi- 
fied in the Italian Renaissance is by a Georgian Englishman. It was stated in the 

[ 139 ] 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


previous chapters that there was a distinctly Italian tinge to most successful British 
buildings. This statement, if not taken too literally, is emphatically correct. 
British architecture, like everything originating in the United Kingdom, is unmis- 
takably British in essence, but its decorative detail, its esthetic inspiration, is 
equally unmistakably Italian in origin, traveling via France. In the process of 
acceptance, the British architects and builders stamped their own national charac- 
teristics upon the details they incorporated; seen in a British mansion they are 
Italianate rather than Italian. It has been. shown how Robert Adam derived his 
style from an outstanding country gentleman’s estate of the late Roman Empire, 
but perhaps sufficient emphasis was not laid upon the fact that he so successfully 
incorporated the Palladian motive into his buildings that to-day Americans, un- 
acquainted with the historic origins of architecture, frequently consider it Robert 
Adam’s most graceful contribution to architectural style. 

In accepting, as we have done so naturally and inevitably, the Colonial, Adam 
and Georgian styles of domestic architecture as our own, we have been accepting 
a large quantity of Italian leaven with our architectural bread. It is curious, when 
one stops to think about it, how much many a New England carpenter, who prob- 
ably never heard of Vicenza in his life, owes to Andrea Palladio’s “Four Books of 
Architecture.” Palladio died in 1580, but the basilica he remodeled in his native 
Vicenza is still one of the architectural sights of Italy and architectural detail 
inspired by him and chiseled by native artisans is still the pride of many a prim 
New Hampshire or Connecticut village. Just above it was stated that England 
derived her Italian motives through France. Generally that is true. Every once 
in awhile, though, some Englishman would go direct to Italy, as Adam did to 
Spalato, and come back full of real Italian, unmodified by passing through any 
other atmosphere. This is precisely the architectural stage in which America, for 
the first time, finds herself. | 

In the three preceding chapters it has been shown how the Colonial, the 
Adam, and the Georgian styles fit naturally into our racial and temperamental 
background. But, as was naturally not pointed out in those chapters, a lot of 
mental water has flowed under the bridges, in this country, since the period which 
produced them. Hilaire Belloc, a writer with an almost uncanny gift for clear 

L 140 ] 


AMERICAN HOMES. OF TO-DAY 


thinking, in a recent series of essays designed to make the Americans and British 
better known to each other, makes the very intelligent criticism that the Britisher 
will get along perfectly with the American provided he does not persist in thinking 
of him as a cousin but treats him, definitely, as a foreigner. At the time of the 
oficial separation from Great Britain, we were almost, but not quite exclusively, 
British. Even then there were other strains in this country exotic to the British 
ideal and the passage of a century and a half has enormously emphasized that 
difference temperamentally. The main difference, if one may make an effort to 
seize upon it, is our greater volatility, our quicker emotional response. In archi- 
tecture this fits us precisely to welcome unadulterated Italian models. Again going 
into definitions, one might say the chief outstanding difference between a restrained 
Baroque Italian palace and its contemporary Georgian mansion is the aroma of 
perfectly controlled but enormous driving, nervous force back of the Italian 
building. 

Italian architecture of the type we are now introducing into America, that is 
after originals erected in the Seventeenth and early Eighteenth Centuries, is dis- 
tinctly opulent, vigorous and full of animal spirits. Speaking in musical terms, 
it is orotund, full-throated, symphonic. It suggests pomp and magnificence 
within, concealed by a massive, rugged and imposing exterior. Corrado Ricci, 
sometime Director General of Fine Arts and Antiquities of Italy, has happily de- 
scribed the best architecture of the period we have in mind as follows: “It acquired 
a force which became boldness, it showed the happy audacities of the conqueror, 
the irrepressible eccentricities of the victor and the autocrat. . . . Magnificence 
was the prevailing note when society showed, above all things, a desire to be 
astonished.” There are very obvious dangers in the style to be sensed in the Ricci 
quotation. It needs talent, fire, resource to put up a good Italian house. Without 
these its magnificence becomes bathos, its pomp bombast, and its strength floridity. 
Designed in a calm and reasonable spirit, with all ornament carefully held down 
in equilibrium and harmony, sobriety and restraint, so that the telling force of the 
building is the underlying constructive principle, it is admirable. When the part 
is allowed to become greater than the whole, the decoration greater than the back- 
ground, when obese urns, dropsical amorini, animal, mineral and vegetable forms 

[ 141 ] 


AMERUGA No E-OWES > Ob el O= DaAay 


in full relief weep from every projection, it becomes a puerile, factitious and 
annoying production. The capacity of striking out boldly for effect, which has 
been given as a characteristic of this period in Italy, is just as difhcult to achieve 
as in the Adam style, and for much the same reason. The basic design must be 
intrinsically good. 

There is again the question of taste involved. Opulence is not necessarily 
bad taste. Being more noticeable than its quieter neighbor it is under stronger 
scrutiny and must just that much more necessarily be founded on correct princi- 
ples. Italian palaces were originally built, and should be erected to-day, only to 
house rather magnificent furnishings. Long vistas, tapestries, heavy furniture, rich 
hangings, are what one associates with an Italian exterior. To attempt to house 
the sweet, chaste severity of a Colonial or Adam style in a ponderous Italian build- 
ing is jangling sweet bells most decidedly out of tune. And that pet of the pro- 
fessional decorator, the beruffled Marie Antainette canopied bedroom is, if possible, 
a little worse. An Italian house is a bit of architectural bravura. To be successful 
there must be about it, unmistakably and inevitably, a sense of joyous fulness, 
vitality, verve, brilliance—all carefully held under control like a four-in-hand of 
spirited but adequately trained horses. Some horrible crimes have been committed 
in the name of Italian Baroque. There are some classic buildings in the Italian 
Peninsula reverently admired by writers on architecture which, frankly, either 
disgust or bewilder the honest North European. The sculptural mood of the 
Campo Santo in Genoa is a startling case in point. When, however, you get the 
Italian with all the qualities previously enumerated, with a touch of that cold, 
almost cruel austerity which is one of the surprising characteristics of the suc- 
cessful examples of the manner, you have a style which is not surpassed in any 
way for use to-day in America. 

In discussing the Adam and Georgian styles it was pointed out that mental 
conditions to-day were very similar to those existing in England when these styles 
were originally produced there. That remains true as far as it goes. There are, 
however, other elements in life to-day which would not feel satisfied with styles 
deriving from Britain; to some their mood might not seem altogether applicable to 
the atmosphere, at least, of the Atlantic sea coast and the Eastern States. It is this 

L 142 ] 


Pav tah GeagN SH OME Sy Od? el Or DAY 


frame of mind, to which undoubtedly the constantly increasing popularity of the 
Italian derivative, especially in city building, is due. An Italian palace was built 
in an age which most emphatically recognized class distinction. Odi profanum 
vulgus et arceo is as definitely inscribed on the front of a big Italian house as if it 
were carved there. An Adam and a Georgian house has an aroma of hospitality; 
an Italian is equally steeped in a you-be-damned atmosphere. Little as we may 
like to admit it, the last twenty years which have seen a development of our new 
architecture have also seen the first very definite steps taken toward the creation 
and acceptance of class distinction in this country. Not being a book on sociology 
it is needless to go into the causes of this change; it is enough to record it. 

There are two generally accepted and quite distinct Italian domestic archi- 
tectural styles now popular in America, those for country use based on the villa and 
those for city use based on prototypes in Italian cities. Asa city style the Italian 
is more popular than against a country background, the mental influences just noted 
being more definitely sensed in large centers of population. In a later chapter the 
city examples will be considered. Herewith are shown some of the most successful 
of the country places, together with some outstanding interiors which have been 
created in this manner. 

The residence of Mr. P. W. Roberts at Villa Nova, Pennsylvania, is an 
example of the rather more genial treatment of the Italian style, with effective 
decoration around the doorways and windows and with the loggia which so defi- 
nitely marks it in our minds as Italian. The residence of the late Isaac Guggenheim 
at Port Washington, which, under the illustrations is called simply a residence at 
Port Washington as it will probably be in other hands by our date of publication, 
is in positive contrast to the home of Mr. Roberts. This is a rather bold, very 
striking thing, reminding us that, though we usually visualize an Italian house in 
either stone or stucco, the use of brick is a perfectly good characteristic of the North- 
ern Italian manner. Two views of this residence are shown in the illustrations to 
this chapter. A detail of the terrace is given in a small illustration and a photo- 
graph of the interior court as a full page. This house particularly well illustrates 
the tendency of the Italian residence for sternness in outline, made human by the 
use of color through flowers and other mediums. The exterior here is brick and 

[ 143 7 


einer SR ae 


WILSON EYRE & McILVAINE, Architects 


HOME OF MR. AND MRS. P. W. ROBERTS AT VILLA NOVA, PENNSYLVANIA 


Washington residence on the opposite page. This detail has a decided feeling for the Ghani ia ait 
the decoration around the doors and windows and tor the attractiveness of the loggia 
polychrome terra cotta, used in such details as a band around the second story 
windows and in the architraves of the windows of the first floor. The roof colors 
range from purple to buff, through all the degrees of red and yellow. The varie- 
gated white marble columns of the handsome second story colonnade and the 
loggias have been stained to produce rich old tones. There are tiled flower boxes, 
in gorgeous colors, and gay silk banners to further the general gala appearance. 
The vestibule glows with colored faience and in connection with it is a long 
gallery with mural decorations by Edith M. Magonigle and a ceiling of blue 
powdered with stars. Around each second story window is a polychrome band 
and the architraves of the first floor windows are polychrome terra cotta. The 
terrace, instead of being one big expanse of brick and stone, has grass plots to 
introduce the interest of another texture and color. The nymph and satyr fountain 
group shown in the court is by Robert Aitken. This was designed deliberately, 

[ 144 ] 3 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


from start to finish, as a polychrome work. It was burned in two pieces at the 


Rookwood Pottery. It is one of the first attempts to do polychrome sculpture in the 


country. It is exhilarating to imagine all this brilliancy against this stern and un- 


welcoming exterior, the tiled window boxes in orange, yellow, green, vermillion, 


the specially designed panels of silk in 
strong colors. As has been said, it illus- 
trates absolutely what has been stated 
in preceding paragraphs about the char- 
acteristics of the true Italian and the 
correctness, in spirit, of its translation 
to our modern building. 

The residence of Mr. and Mrs. Henry 
H. Rogers at Southampton is perhaps 
the most successful and complete Ital- 
ian villa development in the United 
States. It was one of the houses 
exhibited by the architects, Messrs. 
Walker & Gillette, at the Architec- 
tural League in 1922, when they were 
awarded the Gold Medal for Domestic 
work. Other residences shown by them 
on this occasion were the homes of Mrs. 
L. C. Hanna in Cleveland, Mr. Charles 
E. Mitchell and Mr. Thomas W. Lamont 
in New York and that of Mr. William R. 
Coe at Oyster Bay, Long Island. The 
Rogers home is built on those sand 
dunes which the late William Chase and 
his pupils have immortalized in paint. 
The rugged contour of the land, the 
glimpses of blue water and sky make an 


authentic setting for a style of architec- 


H. VAN BUREN MAGONIGLE, Architect 


A VERSION OF THE ITALIAN MANNER AT 
PORT WASHINGTON, LONG ISLAND 


In spite of the fact that the visualization of the Italian 

house is usually in either stone or stucco the use of 

brick is very true to North Italian usage. The photo- 

graph above illustrates a very bold and striking work, 

illustrating the tendency of the Italians to mitigate the 

sternness of their exterior building by the generous use 
of color outside and inside the house 


[ 145 ] 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


ture based on sunlight and the open air. 
The entire property is enclosed in a wall, 
a plan which serves two purposes, that 
of giving the owner an enviable privacy 
and of providing the pleasant gardens 
and other planting with a thoroughly re- 
liable wind break. It is not too far from 
the truth to say that the house has been 
made by hand. All the exterior and in- 
terior angles both inside and out have 
been softened in this way and the iron 
work is hand wrought in the old Italian 
method by imported workmen. 

The plan of the Rogers’ Southampton 


home is as direct as it is effective. It is 


DELANO & ALDRICH, Architects 


MRS. WHITNEY’S STUDIO 


The doorway of Mrs. Harry Payne Whitney’s studio 
at Roslyn, Long Island, illustrates the difference be- 
tween the solid style of Palladio and the lighter and 


entered on one end and, after going up- 
stairs, the view is through the main axis 
of the living room, a large apartment in 


the center of the house which overlooks 


more delicate Adam-English derivation 
the garden on one side and views the 


ocean on the other. Directly opposite the recessed door which leads from the hall- 
way into the living room are doors opening into the dining room and loggia; the 
former is shown in one of our illustrations, as is also an interior of the breakfast 
loggia. The color, which, as has been emphasized, is a definite part of the scheme 
of an Italian house, is found primarily in the stucco, a soft warm gray with an in- 
sinuation of pink in its make-up. Here, as in any modern buildings of the finer 
sort, there is thought for the texture, which, while smooth, as it should be to main- 
tain the sense of formal elegance demanded of the design, is slightly undulated, 
making for variety in the ensemble. The tile roof, so important to the style, main- 
tains primarily a deep, rich bronze but includes occasionally a few light reds and 
purples for the sunlight to play upon. 

In the interior of Mr. Rogers’ home the walls are of a fairly rough finished 

[ 146 ] 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


plaster. The floors are in tile and brick, 
which promotes a feeling of coolness very 
acceptable in what is definitely a sum- 
mer home. The ceilings are of wood, 
painted in the Italian manner. The 
breakfast loggia was decorated directly 
on the plaster in the old Italian fashion 
by Mr. Robert S. Chase of Boston, the 
loggia on the sea side being done in a 
similar manner. Their value to the suc- 
cess of the whole scheme cannot be over- 
estimated. In the interiors, in the large 
rooms and hallways, there is a sugges- 
tion of the heavy, almost monastic treat- 
ment, with an indication of the fortress 
idea which persisted longer in Italy than 
anywhere on the Continent. As a whole 
it is a very complete comprehension and 
realization of that which is most fine and 


most true in Italian architecture. There 


tf 


iteatecececed | 


DELANO & ALDRICH, Architects 


THE VICTOR MORAWITZ HOUSE 


At Woodbury, Long Island. Here is a doorway, Co- 

lonial in feeling, which owes its simplicity and solidity 

to Italian models. It is interesting in comparison to 
the illustration opposite 


is that almost medieval solidity which had always its hint of a possibility of ecclesias- 


tical usage, the heaviness in contrast to the delicacy of the ironwork, the bare walls 


providing rare backgrounds for huge, handsome tapestries, for decorations in bril- 


liant colors, for the stately old Italian furniture used throughout the house. The 


gardens are representative of the house; with statuary placed appropriately, as it 


would be in the old gardens, with the same regard for proportions and for vistas that 


has been shown in the house. In color they are designed to form part of the scheme 


of the residence, with white, mauves, and yellow with blue to make the connection 


with the sea; all to reflect the color of the Old Sixteenth Century stained glass win- 


dows, of the awnings of coarse canvas dyed Italian blue and swung out in true Italian 


fashion. It is a celebration of a triple alliance of art, architecture and nature. 


[ 147 ] 


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Photo. by John Wallace Gillies WALKER & GILLETTE, Architects 
ENTRANCE HALL IN MR. HENRY H. ROGERS’ RESIDENCE 


The windows of Sixteenth Century glass are very fine in color. They gleam like jewels in the walls of rough 

finished plaster, blending with the tones of the rich tapestries, painting the floors with gorgeous transitory 

patterns of their own. A glance at the illustration of the exterior of the entrance doorway which is seen 

in the second chapter shows the interesting liaison made here between the bareness of the exterior and the 
richness of the interiors 


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Photo. by John Wallace Gillies WALKER & GILLETTE, Architects 


A WALL FOUNTAIN ON THE TERRACE OF MR. ROGERS’ RESIDENCE 


A detail which illustrates, as do all the exterior views of the Henry H. Rogers’ Southampton home, the typical 
Italian idea of brightening up bare spaces with the gaiety of flowers. The richness of the bay trees against 
the stucco, the cheeriness of the blossoms bobbing through the grillework, the vines training over the pilgrim- 
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Photo. iy. M. E. Hewitt ‘DELANO & 
A DETAIL OF THE FACADE OF THE WORK RESIDENCE ON LONG ISLAND 


In this special view of the doorway it is possible to appreciate the vigor of the ultra neo-classic treatment of the 
facade. There is adroitness here, too, in the accentuation of the bull’s-eye windows, with the cedars, like excla- 
mation points below them, in the amusing details of the cornice, in the strap ornament of the concave motif 
over the circular balustrade, in every detail that makes for style and verity 


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Photo. by Kenneth Clark H. VAN BUREN MAGONIGLE, Architect 


AN INTERIOR COURT OF A RESIDENCE AT PORT WASHINGTON, LONG ISLAND 


With the family in residence, this court was gala with gorgeous silk banners of various designs flying from the 

staffs, echoing the orange, yellow, green and vermilion of the tiled window boxes and the polychrome stucco 

decoration around the windows of the first floor. The nymph and satyr fountain group by Robert Aitken was 
designed deliberately as a polychrome work and was burned in two pieces at the Rookwood Pottery 


Photo. by Thomas B. Temple BENJAMIN W. MORRIS, Architect 


RESIDENCE OF MR. AND MRS. JOSEPH CLARK BALDWIN 


The dining room in Mr. Baldwin’s “Shallow Brook Farm” at Mount Kisco is another very complete expression 

of its prototype. It has genuine palatial proportions, a richly decorated ceiling and a stone fireplace that is ex- 

actly right in scale. There is just the touch of florid magnificence natural to the Italian style, combined with the 
strict lines and feeling of structural mass 


Photo. by M. E. Hewitt DE SUAREZ & HATTON, Architects 


THE STAIR HALL IN MRS. ALICE McLEAN’S TOWN HOUSE 


A version of the small Italian house at 125 East 54th Street, New York. These are views which might have 

been included in the special chapter on city houses later but are inserted here because they so thoroughly express 

the Italian preferences in house interiors. Contrary to most of our recent building, it provides a legitimate place 
for the not too suppressed decorative painting 


Photo. by M. E. Hewitt DE SUAREZ & HATTON, Architects 


THE LIVING ROOM IN MRS. ALICE McLEAN’S TOWN HOUSE 


This room, while based on the dignity and formal arrangement which is the basis of the Italian interior, has not 

forgotten to be playful. The austerity is al] in the background and is enlivened by the decoration of the cor- 

bels, by the cunningly patterned ceiling, by the “young-Cesar” type of bust over the doorway, which has the 
broken pediment so beloved in English and Colonial doorways and highboys 


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CHAPTER EIGHT 


THE FRENCH STYLE 


‘THERE are probably fewer homes being erected to-day in the French style 
than in any other recognizable manner. The reasons have been indicated in pre- 
vious chapters but may perhaps be advantageously reassembled here. When the 
Colonial, the Adam, and the Georgian manners fell into a slough of despond early 
in the Nineteenth Century, and American architectural despondence finally took 
definite shape in the Queen Anne style (for a discussion of which see the first 
chapter), there began to emerge architects who realized two things. First they 
admitted that we had failed definitely to create new domestic architectural manners 
of our own; second they decided to return to Europe for inspiration. The ever 
present philo-Gallic tendencies in this country naturally directed their thoughts 
towards France. It may not be generally appreciated, but French thought influ- 
enced even the Colonial style and it was a French Major of Engineers, Pierre 
Charles L’Enfant, who came to this country in the train of Lafayette, who was 
first commissioned by Washington to lay out the national capital on the Potomac. 
The Egerton L. Winthrop house in the Colonial manner, chosen to illustrate the 
second chapter, is unmistakably French in general feeling, so much so, in fact, that 
two interior views therefrom are appended to this chapter. 

It can hardly be more than accidental, but still it is rather curious that our 
attempt to import French styles into America has, even up to the moment, pro- 
ceeded along strictly chronological lines. It was begun in the last third of the 
Nineteenth Century by Richardson with his French Romanesque. ‘This was suc- 
ceeded in the closing years of the last century by Hunt and the other gentlemen 
who introduced first the Gothico-Renaissance and later the Palladian-Baroque 

[ 164 ] 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


French styles. This last, which is generally known as Renaissance, swept over 
America like an architectural flood. Since the Georgian it was the first meeting of 
American owners and architects with a perfectly codrdinated, well thought out and 
thoroughly consistent style. It very apparently had just the correct hint of florid 
voluptuousness and conscious ostentation to hit the remote period now twenty years 
past. New York was in a building boom about that time and it would be interest- 
ing to figure out just how many millions of tons of brick, limestone, and structural 
steel stand complacently frozen in French Renaissance mold. One could, if one 
were so minded, drive a visitor from Mars all day around New York and by careful 
selection succeed in convincing him that New York was still in the cupid period 
of French architecture. It was overdone. The parents ate sour grapes and the 
children’s teeth were most emphatically set on edge. 

Just as even the most casual person cannot go to the opera over a season 
of years without unconsciously acquiring a perception of musical standards, so the 
first decade of the present century saw an almost over-night development of 
architectural taste which rejected French Renaissance for domestic architecture, 
practically before the style had solidified here. In less than forty years the whole 
gamut of four hundred years of French building styles had been worked through 
and rejected by Americans. Before it passed, however, it left its mark indelibly 
upon one center of elaborate building, Newport, which is studded to-day, and prob- 
ably will remain so for generations, with buildings which would probably never 
be constructed by the heirs of those who first put them up. To the influence of these 
house in situ is due, unquestionably, the Hamilton Rice place of which an exterior 
view is shown in the Third Chapter. A consideration of this house will show at 
once, however, the change which has taken place in architectural thought in a 
generation. This house is, while unmistakably in the general Newport chateau 
manner, restrained with the utmost severity and with an almost Spartan absence of 
the Baroque feeling and decoration which is characteristic of the earlier examples 
around it. It marks the compromise between local background and present con- 
sciousness. It is unfortunate that our acceptance of French architectural molds 
stopped when it did. We have examples of all the worst here and very few of the 
best. 

[ 165 ] 


AMERICAN HOMES’) OF TO-DAY 


In the preceding chapter, in which was discussed our return direct to Italian 
models for inspiration, it was mentioned that Italian influence shaped the architec- 
ture of all Northern Europe, generally via France. As a quotation in support of 
dogmatic statement is always satisfying, the following from the well known British 
authority on French Renaissance architecture, Mr. W. H. Ward, may be given. 
After making the point which the writer has made in the previous chapter, that it 
was the soldier who first interpreted Italy to France, and after speaking of the 
various French campaigns southward, from that of Charles VIII in 1495 to those 
of Napoleon, he goes on: ““Travel for pleasure and information is, as a general 
practice, a comparatively modern habit but from the time of the Italian wars 
onwards it became increasingly common for French gentlemen, scholars, and men of 
letters to visit Italy, to mention only such well known names as Rabelais and 
Montaigne. If the invasions were all on one side, Italy made a peaceful con- 
quest of France by giving her rulers who, with their suites, influenced French art 
by their Italian predilections and by keeping up artistic intercourse with their native 
land. Within a century two princesses of the Florentine house of Medici ascended 
the French throne and became regents. Both show Italian proclivities in their art 
patronage while another regent, Anne of Austria, by putting power into the hands 
of an Italian churchman, continued the same tradition. But the most important 
factor of all is what French artists learnt in Italy and Italian artists taught in 
France. From the early Sixteenth Century onwards it became the custom of French 
artists and architects to spend some time in Italy. The training of young archi- 
tects in Italy and especially at Rome—at that period the first school of architecture 
in Kurope—consisted not only in visiting, measuring and sketching ancient and 
modern buildings but also in studying and copying the designs of the great masters 
and in making compositions in which the results of their studies were embodied. 
The practice of Italian travel became a general one for young artists and has per- 
sisted to the present day. Under Louis XIV it was erected into a system under state 
patronage by the foundation of the French Academy in Rome.” 

France is the one country of Europe which, mentally, stands with one foot in 
the Mediterranean and the other in the Atlantic and in which, racially, the Nordic 
and the Latin temperaments have met and compromised. It was in France that the 

L 166 ] 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


inevitable adjustments between Italian style in its native state and Italian styles 
suitable for other countries were fought out. Precisely as a British house is obvi- 
ously and emphatically British, so is a French house obviously and determinedly 
French, though both bear the same unmistakable debt to Italian thought. The 
French styles which we have just considered, those of the late Fifteenth and entire 
Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, are those in which the exuberant side of the 
French temperament, egged on, if one may so express it, by Italian example, had 
full swing. It was not until the Eighteenth Century that that other aspect of the 
French genius, its respect for formalism, its love of order, its almost British staid- 
ness and solemnity, its Academic quality, made itself felt in architecture. This 
century in France produced buildings and encouraged a style as solemn, as re- 
strained, as austere as the Italian which has been described in the preceding chap- 
ter; indeed it would be very difficult for a layman to distinguish between the two 
examples. Had we progressed in our attempt to digest French styles a half a 
century farther along we might have been using the French rather than the Italian 
to-day. As it is, there has been such a decided and unsurmountable reaction 
against French Renaissance architecture in our own constantly increasing fondness 
for sophisticated simplicity, that the only type of French building which may now 
be said to have the esthetic approval of the day for an American country house 
style is one which discards all we have previously known about France and goes 
straight back to the simplest type of the French manor house with an almost 
monastic avoidance of ornament, its chief charm lying in the astonishingly effective 
peaked roof, the captivating proportions of which are, at least in foreign eyes, 
one of France’s great, outstanding contributions to the architecture of the world. 

The whole question of roofs is something to which the attention of anyone 
about to build is respectfully directed. So far as we are aware, although the 
orders of columns have been carefully tabulated, no Moses has ever brought 
down a tablet of roofs, yet in any building departing in the least from the stand- 
ardized classical models they are the feature which makes or breaks. They are 
Gothic architecture’s one incorporation into modern domestic building. It is a 
further exemplification of France’s position as a compromise ground between 
Gothic and classic architectural standards that the French roof is one of the most 

EG! 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


suave and satisfying things yet built to please the eye of man. This is a statement 
which can be verified from the exterior views of the Otto H. Kahn and of the Gould 
house which are given in this chapter. | 

Before we turn to a consideration of these houses, a word as to the question 
of French “‘feeling” in architecture. One thinks of an English house as comfort- 
able, of an Italian as forceful, of a French as graceful. That is, of the French 
houses of the Eighteenth and early Nineteenth Centuries with which, unfortunately, 
we are not better acquainted in this country. There developed in France for city 
use a style almost the exact equivalent of the Adam. The difference is one really 
of minute detail. Where the Adam tends to be austere the French is delicate; 
where the British style is stiff, in the French equivalent there is a flourish, a feeling 
of underlying floridity, held very determinedly in restraint, exhibiting itself in 
subtle little lines of ornament which captivate and please before the eye of the 
observer realizes they are there. The English sometimes has a somewhat conscious 
grace; the French has a quite natural charm. 

Finally, French architecture and French interior decoration are very definite 
things. One accepts them as a unit or not at all. One is always free, within 
reasonable limits of course, to put any pictures upon the wall of a Georgian 
room. The walls of a well done French room would repel such an invasion with 
an almost audible shudder. A French room is not a place to be informal in, nor 
is it a background for untidiness. That is precisely why it is so beloved of deco- 
rators. All details have been worked out in the country of origin to an absolutely 
self-consistent harmony and the creative French genius has left no blank spaces 
anywhere for an owner of 1924: to fill in with incongruous adornment. A French 
interior is a cool, suave, charming thing, essentially polite and ordered—take it 
or leave it, but don’t muss it up. ) 

The country home of Mr. and Mrs. Otto H. Kahn, near Coldspring Harbor, 
Long Island, is a large and thoughtfully beautiful house which is but one unit in a 
very seriously designed whole; which is true of any complete architectural scheme, 
especially those founded on the more formal styles. The ambition of the architects 
has been to erect not only a residence of taste and architectural quality but to 
build an estate of taste and architectural value. In the plan, the house and grounds 

L 168 ] 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


follow the shape of a long plateau, the residence being on one of the highest pieces 
of ground in this part of Long Island. The top of the plateau is open, with an 
unrestricted view, but the hills leading up to it are planted thick with red cedars 
that grow all over the island. It will be observed that all this planting is indigenous 
to the soil and has nowhere a suggestion of being alien to Long Island, yet it is kept 
in perfectly logical relation to the French style of the estate. The long driveway at 
the East on the plan is through thousands of these cedars and terminates in a very 
amusing entrance court, paved with stones from old New York streets. This court 
is very large and the irregularity of the pavement, with the grass growing between 
the cobbles, provides a piquant note and a valid introduction to the house itself, 
which is rather in the character of a great French farmhouse of the more important 
type than a palatial chateau. This court is illustrated in a view of the residence 
shown in the second chapter. 

As has been insinuated, the house, while formal in its general conception, is 
not at all a great, monumental palace. Although it is a very big house it is not 
grandiose. For their chief interest the architects have relied on the massing and 
the spacing, on the value of the wall spaces and the texture of the stucco and the 
stone. ‘There is practically no carving and there are no orders, which is unique in 
a house of this importance. One of the most diverting features is the roof which, 
while it is absolutely smooth in reality, contains a suggestion of a wave derived 
from the difference in the size of the slates used and the way in which they are 
laid. The roof surfaces are very large and the idea has been to give play to it and 
to make it entertaining. There is no attempt, in any instance, to make it look old. 

On the South side of the plan (as illustrated by the airplane view in Chapter 
One) reaches out the long, sunken garden, between allées of trees. On the lowest 
garden motive a beguiling use has been made of the parterre, with this difference 
from the accepted models: These geometric forms, instead of following the French 
originals, where the parterres are of grass, are all of water, which brings a good 
deal more of water and sky reflections into the garden than is possible through any 
system of pools. This has never before been done in this country and in Italy only 
once or twice. Its effectiveness can be imagined from the illustration shown in this 
chapter. At the end of this garden is another where the intention is more 

[ 169 ] 


AMERICAN POM ES Oike el OF Disa 


picturesque. The planting altogether becomes more free in form as the way leads 
down the hill and further from the house. The second sunken garden includes 
the rose gardens, the little Dutch garden, a circular garden with a sundial and other 
various and engaging minutie. And enclosing, framing, the whole scheme of the 
plateau, is the thick planting of Long Island cedars. Perhaps the shortest cut to 
an expression of the enormous improvement which is obvious in our latter day 
country house design over that of a generation ago is to say that the architects 
have re-discovered charm, that they have, as remarked earlier in the book, become 
imbued with an ambition not to reproduce stiff copies of European types but rather 
to give a spirited and artistic impression of them, to set them legitimately in their 
sites and give them comfort without losing character. The Kahn residence is one 
of the great successes in this new architectural spirit. 

In the country home of Mr. and Mrs. Charles A. Gould at Greenlawn, Long 
Island, the architect has done a bold and a charming thing, to which he has been 
inspired by the slope of the hill on which the house is set and by memories of 
Louis XVI and the rendezvous de chasse to which the ladies and gentlemen of the 
court retired for rest and refreshment after a day’s shooting over the countryside 
of France. In other words, he has produced here in America, on an estate of some 
thousand acres, a shooting-box which might have graced the rolling country which 
has rung with the laughter and merriment of Marie Antoinette and her courtiers. 
As the country at this point, probably the highest in Long Island, is peculiar, he 
has made the house peculiar, using that word in the complimentary sense, to 
acknowledge daring and originality. Looking upon these hills he has recognized 
the value of following the line of them, has answered, in the deep slanting roof, in 
the engaged pilaster chimneys, to the challenge of this element of elevation. The 
result, artistically, is apparent from the illustration shown of the exterior. In plan 
the house is delightful, recognising the principles of symmetry and of rectilinear 
and rectangular treatment, characteristic of the French period it reflects, and pro- 
viding for one-story wings on the West front and loggias on the garden side which 
add quite as much in the way of comfort as to the balance and grace of the design. 
In these West front wings the one which stretches towards the South is as complete 
as a one-floor bungalow, containing three large bedrooms with their accompanying 

L705) 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


baths. Running out in the opposite direction, the North wing, shown in the illus- 
tration in this chapter, is introduced by a handsome office for Mr. Gould’s use and 
is finally devoted to the kitchen and service quarters. The high central portion of 
the house takes care of the formal entrance and stair halls and the long living room 
which looks out on the garden or East front of the house. The material used for 
the house is stucco, the color a very warm cream, the long-lined roof of hand 
made tiles giving an effect familiar to those who know this type of house in the 
country of its origin. One can but compliment the owner for his acceptance of a 
point of view which has secured to him a country seat which recognizes his repu- 
tation as a sportsman and is pleasantly reminiscent of a similar interest in the 
ladies and gentlemen of the Eighteenth Century. 

In the city house interiors shown in this chapter, Mr. and Mrs. I. Townsend 
Burden’s town residence is a very discreet and graceful version of the period of 
Marie Antoinette, the home of Mr. and Mrs. John S. Rogers, so far as the library 
illustrated is concerned, is French of the Regence period, with a modern painted 
dining room by Jansen of Paris. The Burden home, at 115 East Seventieth Street, 
illustrates a style founded on rectangles. Its success is determined largely by the 
perfection of its line and the exquisiteness of its ornament. Its charm is the charm 
of symmetry and well considered spaces. Its precision results in elegance. Its 
reserve suggests all that one has ever known of the ritualism of French social 
custom. It is a type undeniably suited to the formal town dwelling; in cool, 
aristocratic contrast to the over-exuberant life of a great cosmopolitan city. It 
verifies statements made in one of the English chapters on the resemblance in 
the characteristics of Adam and Louis Seize. It provides an excellent background 
for fine furniture and furnishings which need not be, necessarily, of its special 
era, provided they make the artistic liaison. The library, one of our special 
admirations, is handsomely paneled in a beautifully grained American walnut 
with the paneling designed as a framework for a set of five tapestries. It is a 
balanced arrangement of angles and arches which works out imposingly in a 
room of so definite a material. The arched openings for the books illustrated 
are repeated at the opposite end of the room by a mirror of corresponding shape 
and proportion, above an imported mantel. The tapestries on each side of the 

L171 ] 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


arched opening are reflected in oblong openings for the books each side of the 
marble mantelpiece. The drawing room is conceived around Eighteenth Century 
paintings in the style of Boucher. The walls are delicately beveled panels with 
the ornament especially planned for the various spaces. The lighting fixtures 
are not set arbitrarily into the moldings; they are designed into them, which is 
quite another matter. The color of the walls is a light, very light, French green. 
The furniture here, as throughout the residence, is old and full of character, 
Mr. and Mrs. Burden’s residence expresses authentically that reborn love for the 
more ordered forms of city SEU gis: which was lost oan: one period of our 
development. 

The town house of Mr. and Mrs. John S. Rogers at 53 East 79th Street has 
another very fine library. This, as has been observed, is in the period of the 
Regency. It is very large, very graceful, very comfortable, with a grate fire to 
give that fitful light on the color of the books on a winter afternoon. The house 
has, according to the architects’ own statement, been built around the furniture and 
tapestries, which are confined mainly to the drawing room which is not illustrated. 
The library is on the second floor, facing on Seventy-ninth Street. The walls 
here are in walnut, as in the Burden residence. A special feature is the rounded 
corner, shown in the illustration. The books are flush with the wall, the openings 
for them utilized for the introduction of delicate curves and light decoration. The 
dark wood of the walls is connected quite beautifully with the light cream of the 
ceiling by a cove, colored a deep ivory, with delicate beadings and corner ornamen- 
tation. The room is filled comfortably with furniture, all good, all suitable. 
Several of the chairs are of the Louis XV type in walnut, with needle point and 
tapestry seats and backs, the wood here and there revealing a glint of gold. 
The hangings are old blue and gold damask. The rugs are richly oriental, deepen- 
ing in color and tone as they near the stone fireplace. Admirable as the details of 
the furnishings are, it is, however, the room itself which represents the real 
achievement. It is at once domestic, spacious, elegant, entirely right. It is a room 
well worth doing. 

The dining room in the Rogers residence is composed of panels painted by 
the famous Jansen of Paris, the architects having supervised the moldings and 

[e172 3) 


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other architectural details. Jansen also designed and painted much of the furni- 
ture. The tone of the room is the green which Corot brought to such a point of 
appreciation, the floral and landscape decoration introducing soft natural colors 
which do not interfere with its abstract beauty. The silk hangings keep the scale 
of the panels, touching a note a little higher on the keyboard of color, yet still a 
gentle, subdued note that is neither dull nor dead. The one tone rug more definitely 
touches on the gray in the Corot green. A small and compactly modeled marble 
mantel with rounded corners, in a very original design of dwarfed pillars, is an 
attractive decoration for a particularly charming room. The residence throughout 
represents this quality of charm and tone. 


The residence of Mr. and Mrs. Moses Taylor, at Portsmouth, a twenty-minute 


P : ae . ae a aauaieinetad é " : BES eae rae ce amr repre coerce 


GAR SORE. 5 Se, as oes Shop 


Photo. by M. E. Hewitt DELANO & ALDRICH, Architects 


RESIDENCE OF MR. AND MRS. OTTO H. KAHN 


This is the South front of the country residence at Coldspring Harbor, Long Island, overlooking the garden. 

The long garden plan extends out from this front, the central garden, illustrated above, being reminiscent of 

the French parterre type, the original grass forms having been replaced, in the present instance, by water bor- 
dered with grass, adding the color and variation of sky reflections to the design 


[ 174 ] 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


automobile drive from Newport, Rhode Island, is a unit of one of the very large 
estates in the process of development as this book goes to press. The admirable 
drawing by Mr. Eggers shows it to be in the French farmhouse manner upon which 
the home of Mr. and Mrs. Kahn on Long Island is based. Here, again, is found 
the piquancy of roof and chimneys, the smart line possible to such a derivation. 
To appreciate the xsthetic relation of the house to its environment it is necessary 
to understand both the site and the materials which provide a texture suitable to 
the style and the country. The site, which presented somewhat of a problem, was 


a big, steep hill into which, after considerable deliberation, it was decided to carve 


the entrance court, which, in consequence, is surrounded with a retaining wall. 


Photo. by M. E. Hewitt DELANO & ALDRICH, Architects 


ARCADED WALL OF THE KAHN RESIDENCE ON LONG ISLAND 


This detail of the arcaded wall which secludes the house group from the forecourt and is centered by the en- 
trance door, gives the keynote to an austerity that is almost monastic, to the fine simplicity of this big, yet 
never grandiose house of the more important French farmhouse type 


[ 175 ] 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


The desire of the owners to have the house on a parallel with the river (the 
Sakonnet) so as to derive all possible enjoyment of a particularly fine view, added 
to the characteristics of the site, engendered an unusual and amusing entrance 
plan. Instead of being on an axis with the house, as is customary, the entrance 
driveway is on a parallel, so that it is possible to drive straight through the court 
to an exit which leads, through a charming wooded, natural glen, with little 
brooks and springs, to Mr. Taylor’s very extensive farm group, which has been 
established for some time and is one of the biggest and most important in the 
country. On the East side of the house, which is the view shown in the illustration, 
is a large terrace from which paths lead down the hillside. Perhaps it is more 
accurate to describe it as a tremendous lawn which slopes down to the embankment, 
well shaded with trees and bushes, which borders the river, with its boat house 
and private dock. 

The materials of the Taylor residence are Ohio sand stone of variegated 
colorings and cement stucco. The general texture resulting is sunny, with a pre- 
vailing sense of buff and orange. The color of the stucco walls is a tone picked up 
from the light buff shade. The roof is of a small, green slate, with a slight mixture 
of black, laid irregularly to give a more interesting effect. All the gutters, hips 
and exposed metal work are of lead. The chimneys of red brick have stone quoins, 
so that the color combination is very interesting. The brick chimney is, of course, 
a familiar French feature. The shutters of all the windows, typical of the French 
style, are painted to harmonize with the stone in color. At the right, looking 
at the illustration, is the garden, on an axis with the loggia off the living room. 
This has been developed by Mr. Pope and Olmstead Brothers, of Brookline. It 
is interesting to find the same architect, John Russell Pope, at practically the same 
time, developing such fine and extensive works as this and the Marshall Field 
estate, one from a French premise, the other from the Georgian. 


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SUHDOU “S NHOL ‘SUW GNV ‘UW AO HSNOH NMOL AHL NI AUVUATT 


spoyqoly ‘NOLSONIAIT ¥ ANCIYUAMOUL sqqeL Aq ‘soj}0Ud 


| | FE 

ih 

{HII 
Ht 


Photo. by Tebbs TROWBRIDGE & LIVINGSTON, Architects 


DINING ROOM IN THE TOWN HOUSE OF MR. AND MRS. ROGERS 


This is composed of panels painted by Jansen of Paris, the architects having supervised the moldings and 
architectural details. Jansen also designed and painted much of the furniture. It is all cool and essentially 
polite. The theme is Corot green, with the sense of gray noted in the rug. 


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SOTTIND eovypem uyor Aq ‘oj04g 


speupoy ‘OLLVA ¥ UONVAUL 


y gies a 


cece x 


bes 


Photo. by John Wallace Gillies TREANOR & FATIO, Architects 


TOWN RESIDENCE OF MR. AND MRS. I. TOWNSEND BURDEN 


Here, as in Mr. Rogers’ residence, is a definitely French library, quite distinct in personality from the British. 

In its rather formal grace there is no hint of a well worn leather chair or an old pipe; yet there is every pro- 

vision for comfort in the generously spaced period chairs and sofas, in the arched windows, letting in plenty of 

sunshine and light. The handsome paneling of beautifully grained American walnut is designed as a framework 
for a set of five tapestries 


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YUANNVW HONAYA AHL NI AILNALSISNOOD GHdOTHAYd YUOdNO V 


spoyyoy “ALLATIIO ¥ YAWIVM 


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GNVTHAWTO NI VNNVH 0 “I ‘SUW AO ANOH HHL AO TIVLAd 
spe2TPIy “ALLATIO ¥ YAWIVM 


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: dOUHLNIM "I NOLYHOU ‘SUN GNV “YW AO HNOH AULNAIOOD AHL 
speyyouy “HOIUGIV ¥ ONVI1EG HIMCH “AW 4q 070Ud 


ssauyts 10 Ap[eULIO, pAVMYMV OU FT YPM Soplivo Jey AywuSrp oiyeaooystze sures ay} “Yonoy uvpriiyed 
‘Tensvo oUIVS dy} VYI[e Sf sLoy} STO Sty} FO uapieds oy} pue ssnoy 24} Y}Oq UT ‘siseyduia ou spoou aaydeyp sty} UL peze.AysNq[! Apvaipe SsuIool Youd 
Qa 


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AOUHLNIM “I NOLUADA ‘SUN AGNV “UW AO ANWOH AULNNOO HHL 
spayyory ‘HOIUCTV ¥ ONVIAd WIMOH “A W Aq *070Ud 


CHAPTER NINE 


DEEDES PZ BE HeAN SP Gal Reta One 


lr ever a definition asked for trouble it is the one at the beginning of this 
chapter, because the buildings described herein are by no means necessarily 
Elizabethan and, so far as I am aware, this is the first time they have been officially 
defined as picturesque. On the other hand, the definition has the merit of a lot of 
really unscientific things of being very satisfactorily self-explanatory. When your 
companion suddenly interrupts a delicate problem in steering with the exclama- 
tion, “‘Isn’t that a picturesque building!” and you glance up quickly to something 
that, generally speaking, makes you think of the Hugh Thomson illustrations of 
Shakspere—why that is a perfect example of what is meant by the definition just 
given. 

By it is included the various types of building produced in England between 
the ends of the Wars of the Roses and the accession of George I, the whole Tudor, 
Elizabethan, Stuart, Carolean, Commonwealth and Jacobean periods, ranging 
from 1485 to 1714. Just as it was explained in the chapter on American Colonial 
that the attempt to define Colonial was a light and frolicsome undertaking com- 
pared with the discovery of a needle in a haystack, so it might be said that the 
growth, development, relation, correlation, and interrelation of the buildings 
erected in England between the development of an artillery force by the Tudors to 
the beginning of the Hanoverian dynasty has apparently always been a source of 
profitable amusement to architectural writers and shows no signs of ever becoming 
anything else. But for us to-day, generally speaking, these two centuries focus in 
and are best typified by the reign of the last and greatest of the Tudors, Queen 
Elizabeth. So much so that an attempt to point out to your average college gradu- 

[190 ] 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


ate that a building he called Elizabethan was really a composite of very early 
Tudor, contemporaneous with the discovery of America, plus a few fancy Flemish 
details characteristic of William of Orange at the other end of the period, would 
be a rather graceless and useless thing. The passing of another two centuries has 
succeeded in softening the outlines of each sub-period and of coalescing and blend- 
ing the whole so that to-day we see this type of building, even more than the 
Colonial, through a mist of literary romance and it has become to us, probably, 
something much more than it was to its contemporaries. Before pursuing this 
point in a further paragraph, it should be added that, while the feeling of the 
period is in our eyes largely English, yet we tend to associate with the correct 
English models certain rather more austere structures erected at the same time in 
Scotland and also French detail, particularly Norman, gathered from across the 
Channel. 

Architecturally, the interval in English history passing between the accession 
of Henry VII and that of George I mark the passing of the Gothic urge and its 
final emergence into the formalism of classic mould. Practically no dwelling 
houses livable-in by moderns were erected by Englishmen before that date. 
Mobile artillery, the one weapon of offense beyond the reach of a private, even 
a ducal, purse, was perfected about that time and its ownership was imme- 
diately made a royal, later a governmental, prerogative. That fact made the 
building of fortress homes no longer commercially efficient. Consequently the 
country gentlemen and architects of those days began to plan their houses with 
the gardens and windows which had been denied their grandfathers. They still 
thought, however, along the lines of their immediate predecessors, whose one prob- 
lem had been to crowd as many small, dark, narrow, and uncomfortable living 
rooms as possible inside of the external wall. The main feature of all medieval 
buildings, the great central assembly hall, was improved, elaborated, and enriched; 
and their remarkable skill in the use of wood paneling and carving found full vent 
there as well as in the comparatively speaking spacious staircases and upper apart- 
ments which gradually grew on to the central hall. But, when all is said and done, 
a real Elizabethan building, putting aside all the literary bunkum which has be- 
come associated with it through our fondness for the poets and playwrights who 

ed RES 


ACME Tol CAN aE OOM Fess. Ona OF lorney. 


flourished at that time, was a not altogether comfortable, though exceedingly 
picturesque, camping out place. The Gothic attitude towards building has been 
spoken of earlier. This attitude the builders of the time brought to their house 
construction. While basic planning only gradually improved, detail was made 
wonderfully effective from the point of view of the sculptor, the woodcarver, and 
the bricklayer. 

I have just said that to us to-day an Elizabethan building has ineradicable 
literary associations. When we see a good example we also mentally visualize 
Henry VIII chasing one of his numerous wives through the shrubbery, or Queen 
Elizabeth being coy with Leicester. Think of the Georgian, the Italian or the 
French houses previously discussed and you think of people living in them; think 
of the Elizabethan and you think of a pageant. 

In previous chapters an attempt has been made to show how absolutely archi- 
tecture reflects the mood of the people who produce it; and in the five previous 
types discussed how closely that mood corresponded to one facet or another of our 
own. Before attempting to give the position of the Elizabethan picturesque in our 
own local and contemporary cosmos, let us consider the period from the literary 
point of view. Modern literature, by which, of course, is meant literature which 
may be read without special vocabularies by the intelligent laymen of to-day, started 
then. It was really a very remarkable beginning, at least as descendants of those 
who made this beginning we like to think so. There certainly was a burst of pro- 
ductivity of the highest kind in England at the end of the Sixteenth Century which 
was not equaled in France and which, for the first time, brought that astonishing 
young nation, England, onto a plane of literary equality with the acknowledged 
past master of literary art, Italy. Like all fair beginnings of young men, it was, as 
a contemporary complained of Marlowe and Shakspere, “the swelling bombast of 
braggart blank verse.’ The Elizabethans, including, indeed particularly including 
Shakspere, set out to out-bombast, out-declaim, out-exaggerate their fellows. 
Christopher Marlowe, the most characteristically Elizabethan of them all, the 
gentleman who was or was not killed in a bar room brawl over a disreputable 
woman (Clemence Dane thinks that Shakspere himself did it), wrote a play called 
“Tamburlaine the Great” which certainly dazzled his own generation and gives 

[192] 


ANCE RG ANe HOMES: OF TO-DAY 


one a perfect idea of the stuff the Elizabethan intelligenzia and gentry, the people 
who designed and dwelt in Elizabethan houses, were in the mood to enjoy. The 
play is a quasi-historical affair about a very successful Mongol bandit who made 
quite a stir in Southwestern Asia in the closing years of the Fourteenth Century, 
conquering and killing off the local kings like a row of ninepins. One of the big 
entries in the play is where he appears in his chariot, drawn by the kings of 
Trebizon and Soria, “‘with bits in their mouths, reins in his left hand and in his 
right hand a whip with which he scourgeth them.”” He speaks: 
“Hola, ye pamper’d jades of Asia! 
What, can ye draw but twenty miles a-day!”’ 
Those two lines have lived in literary history ever since Marlowe wrote them. 
While to us they are a mental curiosity, by his contemporaries they were treated 
with overwhelming seriousness as a proof of not only profound poetic genius but 
marvelous dramatic ability. Marlowe is a much better example of what the 
Elizabethan age was really like than Shakspere, because Shakspere has, in the 
course of time, become so emasculated that unless one undertakes to write a doc- 
tor’s dissertation on the gentleman it is practically impossible to know him as he 
really was. By common consent, Thomas Bowdler, who undertook to expurgate 
Shakspere, is an object of polite ridicule; but the centuries have done imperceptibly 
what we mock Bowdler for doing openly. Of Shakspere’s thirty-seven plays only 
some seventeen or so are still acted; and of the twenty now confined to the obscurity 
of a library some are so repellant to modern ideas that soft-hearted people try to 
claim that Shakspere never wrote them. 

Our partial knowledge of Shakspere is typical of our partial knowledge of the 
period which produced the Elizabethan buildings and the real attitude of mind of 
the people who dwelt in them. We like the general outward aspect of the times so 
much, they fought so well, they wrote some such startlingly good poetry, the 
greatest poet and playwright of the English tradition flourished then, and they made 
some such very attractive houses, externally at least, that we deliberately close 
our mental eyes to all the hardness, brutality, and animalism of the times. These 
are all qualities of the individualist and the youth who despises convention for its 
own sake. In architecture, the Colonial, the Adam, the Georgian, the French, and 

193] 


AMERITGAN, HOMES, OF 8.002 DAW 


Italian styles, are very carefully thought out conventions. The Elizabethan pictur- 
esque is an expression of individualism with the defects of its qualities and the 
qualities of its defects. 

By this time even the hurried reader will have gathered that the style called 
Elizabethan Picturesque is antipathetic to the writer. To give the Elizabethans 
their due, however, it must be admitted that the same genius that lightened the 
plays of Shakspere corruscated through some of the buildings that went up at that 
time. The Elizabethans had just discovered that they could fight, write plays and 
poetry, and build country houses, and they went through these problems with the 
fine assurance, the overwhelming vitality, and the occasional startling success of 
youth on its first mental jag. A good Elizabethan house is the most flamboyant 
architecture which ever came out of the British temperament; and it came out 
unconsciously. Architectural authorities claim this attribute for the perpendicular 
or Tudor Gothic, the sort of thing so thoroughly familiar to us in certain modern 
types of conscientiously mediaeval churches. But these buildings are basically 
stiff and conscious, as self-conscious, in fact, for their period as the Houses of 
Parliament were in the last century. The Elizabethans who produced the houses 
which have given the inspiration for such modern examples as the Coe place, the 
Jeffords house, the Stuart Duncan, and the Allan Lehman houses illustrated in the 
following pages, were having altogether too good a time out of life to be conscious 
about it. As said in an earlier chapter, it is a style that is somewhat alien to the 
century which produced the Empire State Express and the airplane. Elizabethan 
buildings ramble in a time which is accustomed to get somewhere on schedule. 

There is the same sweep of vitality, however, in a well handled Elizabethan 
house that there is in similar well handled Italian, the same underlying throb of 
intense energy. In the Italian this driving power manifested itself in the enrich- 
ment of a comparatively simple structure. In the Elizabethan model the structure 
itself was played with as well as the detail. The English mind first faced the idea 
of symmetry in building about the time they were erecting the Elizabethan house 
and they faced it with a rather bad grace. While a number of Elizabethan build- 
ings are, apparently, symmetrical enough externally, as a matter of fact they are 
rather patchwork inside; so to-day a house in the Elizabethan manner is really a 

[ 194 ] 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


carefully thought out patchwork, with arrangements made for those modern con- 
veniences which were inconceivable to the Elizabethan mind, all coédrdinated by a 
masterly intelligence. That this sort of thing can be very successfully done now 
is amply shown in the photographs accompanying this chapter. But it needs a rather 
hearty, robustious and sturdy frame of mind to rise triumphant over so strongly 
an individualistic setting. The Elizabethan house is probably the most splendid 
background in the world for a fancy dress party; it is pretty strongly colored for 
everyday life. When successful it is supremely successful. On the other hand 
some of the worst fail- 
ures in modern architec- 
ture have been _perpe- 
trated in its name. 
Frequently the archi- 
tecture of a residence is 
determined by the desire 
of the owners to retain 
an old building already 
existing on the property. 
‘This was true in the case 
of “Hunting Hill Farm,” 
the Walter M. Jeffords 
home near Media, Penn- 
sylvania. It was a little 
stone farmhouse the 
family had been using 
as a hunting lodge for 
some time which, con- 


sidered with the charac- 


Courtesy of Town & Country JOHN T. WINDRIM, Architect 


THE NICHOLAS F. BRADY RESIDENCE 


teristics of the site, gave 


the inspiration for the The illustration shows one wing of a very successful example of the pic- 


turesque style in the English manner. Gothic details are apparent in the 

chimneys and there are traces of Renaissance in the balustrading. An 

is enclosed porch, thirty-four by forty-three feet, has been incorporated with- 
ouse and grounds along fie sweeney 


1954) 


development of the 


AWCE RE GANS EEO NEE SO tae Oe aie 


informal and picturesque 
lines. There is, of course, 
nothing that sets so well 
in the Pennsylvania 
country as these houses 
built of native stone; they 
are so right in their rela- 
tion to the old buildings 
still standing throughout 
the state. The architects 
of Philadelphia have long 
recognized this truth, 
with excellent results in 


WILSON EYRE & McILVAINE, Architects their suburbs and _ out- 
MR. WALTER M. JEFFORDS’ HOME 


The illustration gives a detail of the terrace side of “Hunting Hill Farm” 
at Media, Pennsylvania. Other views of this handsome expression of the 
English picturesque are shown in this chapter. Its harmony with the land- Perhaps there is no one 


sie eg see tar thing more interesting in 
contemplating the work of an accomplished and experienced architect than the 
way in which he practically models his house to his site. The photographs illus- 
trate the flexibility of the handling of the two levels of the site of Mr. Jeffords’ 


estate. The old stone of which a large part of the house is composed was obtained 


lying country districts. 


by buying and razing a number of old barns and buildings in the neighborhood and 
requisitioning the weathered material for the new structure, a thoroughly pictur- 
esque device. The homogeneous effect thus obtained was furthered by the intelli- 
gent use of the buff Ohio cut stone employed for the trim of the exterior. This has 
been very satisfactorily treated with rather rough hand tooling, which produces an 
attractive texture and gets away from the hard and formal appearance so at vari- 
ance with the ideal which the architect has wished to express. The house through- 
out is very successful in craftsmanship, one of the most difficult things to achieve, 
always, on this side of the water. The extent of the estate, which embraces a thou- 
sand acres or more of splendid hunting country, and the rolling character of the 
land, make the long winding driveway, which finally curves about the entrance 
L 196 ] 


ACNE Ee LC ne Nee CONDE Sh Ome TOr DAY 


forecourt, a natural part 
of the landscape scheme. 
The illustration of the 
terrace shows how the na- 
tive trees have been made 
part of the architectural 
composition. A closer 
view would reveal the 
manner in which a mag- 
nificent old tree has had 
the stone terrace built 


around it, showing a 


proper reverence for its 


age and beauty. Both ex- | HARRY ALLAN JACOBS, Architect 
MR. JOSEPH LAROCQUE’S HOUSE 


The home of Mr. and Mrs. Larocque at Bernardsville, New Jersey, is 

another instance where the building has been carefully conceived to seem 

autochthonous to the landscape. The country lane effect is delightful in 
the picture 


ternally and in its inter- 
iors the Jeffords’ house is 
a very handsome work. 
The feeling for reviving the genuine old respect for craftsmanship is a very 
vital part of the residence of Mr. William R. Coe near Oyster Bay. The house 
itself is constructed of mixed limestone laid in very much the manner of the old 
feudal places in Scotland. Everywhere the spirit of the early Tudor house has 
been maintained. The workmanship throughout emphasizes the fact that the 
Tudor ideal has been kept constantly in mind. The draughtsman had the advan- 
tage of Scotch training; the modeler worked for years at Wells Cathedral; the head 
stone mason had a knowledge of the old way of doing things from the restoration 
of ancient Scottish castles. So that the laying of the stone, the irregularities which 
give play to the walls, are founded on solid experience as well as on artistic imagi- 
nation. The interior work is executed in a very bold and simple manner. The 
detail is Tudor with a touch of Norman. The woodwork is handwrought English 
oak. All the leaded glass was made in England and the handwrought hardware 
was designed especially for the house. The various rooms have a quality that is 
something more than the mere suggestion of authenticity; they have style. This 
[ 197 ] 


ANODE Re CAN 3H OWL ES O-Rie TO = DEA 


results from the careful spacing and the 
thoughtful placing of the decorative 
units against the plain wall spaces of 
hard, trowelled plaster, in a soft fawn 
color. These wide wall spaces are valu- 
able from several angles. They are rest- 
ful because they suggest breathing space 
in a generation that is so continually 
breathless in its pursuit of excitement. 
They give tapestries the vital place they 
had in the days when they were a genu- 
ine decorative necessity. They leave 
place for such a tour de force as the 
English oak doorway of the dining room 


seen in one of the illustrations. The 


JOHN RUSSELL POPE, Architect 


EARLY ENGLISH DETAIL 


Gable over the driveway entrance of Mr. Allan S. full of engaging contrasts with its tall 
Lehman’s home at Tarrytown. The ornament evokes ; 


memories of the days when every timber craftsman 117 1 
Fee ct ceiling, its low fireplace, its broad arched 


entrance hall, which is also illustrated 


in this chapter, is rich in character and 


stone-bound openings, its tower-like win- 
dows, its feeling for opposing angles. For color it depends on the hewn timbers, 
the old stone, the Fifteenth Century tapestry, the slate tiles and the suitable furni- 
ture, dwarfed to proportions which give the hall its proper scale emphasis. It is 
one of the notable houses of America. 

A very superior version of the robust English style is Mr. Stuart Duncan’s 
residence at Newport. This has a position overlooking Newport Harbor. In spirit 
the residence is Tudor, without following the Tudor plan. Its charm is asym- 
metrical. The rambling character of the structure has made it possible for the 
architect to take advantage of certain breezes and shelter from the sun which are 
so essential to the comfort of a summer residence. Here again, in the interiors, is 
the careful study of the relation of ornament to the bare wall spaces. This is 
considered one of Mr. Pope’s finest expressions in the early English manner. 

19s) 


eVibene eG AaN es O MibsS9 O lasiO=D AY 


Another by the same architect in a spirit 
somewhat less chastened is the summer 
home of Mr. Allan S. Lehman at Tarry- 
town. Mr. Lehman’s house seems infi- 
nitely more domestic, with less reserve, 
than the Duncan house. But it has the 
pleasing irregularities, the length of line, 
the effective angles which are definite 
reasons for the persistence of a liking 
for the style. The house has the ap- 
pearance of having developed through 
the temperaments of several generations. 
Temperament is, perhaps, its real key- 


note; an early English house without 


temperament is stale architectural mat- 


ter indeed. It is designed to be color- A SCULPTOR’S ANDIRONS 


- The entertaining genius of Hunt Diederich, the 
ful and the careful selection of the sculptor, is expressed in an individual treatment of 

: z Z ; ironwork which is quite in the Elizabethan feeling. 
materials, the skilful manipulation of — The illustration shows the fireplace in Mr. Joseph 


the brick, stone, wood, and slate which cd bee 

compose it are to this end. Throughout, moreover, is felt the ability of the 
architect to play with the original idea, to express himself with the flexibility 
of a good draughtsman. The plan provides variety from several angles. There 
are typical Tudor compositions in which gray timbered gables, brick walls, oddly 
patterned and twisted chimneys are concerned. There is the special interest of 
the forecourt, which realizes, as we have learned to realize, the value of old trees, 
which the care of skilful nurserymen preserved during the building of the 
residence. 

The forecourt of the Lehman residence is angular and is enclosed by a seven- 
foot brick wall with a stone coping, the long stretch at the east shutting off the 
greenhouses and the gardens. A gate in this wall, opposite the main entrance, 
provides the exit. The privacy insured by this enclosing wall is one of the most 
welcome features of our modern planning and is in direct defiance of the early 

[ 199 ] 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


b 


Photo. by Gillies JOHN RUSSELL POPE, Architect 


HOME OF MR. STUART DUNCAN AT NEWPORT 


A view across the lawn of a very fine accomplishment in the early English manner developed in stone and 

carefully selected brick. The residence has been conceived on a scale suited to the architecture and the results 

are notably successful. The materials used are sturdy and interesting and the long informal plan is both 
entertaining and practical for a summer residence 


American predilection for a house set high upon an absolutely unscreened lawn, a 
method which made any possibility of using the grounds, in the comfortable 
English fashion, highly impracticable. The view of the West terrace which is 
shown in one of the illustrations is another example of the tendency of modern 
building to take advantage of an existing tree and make it a focal decorative point. 
This terrace is paved with worn flagstones framed in turf. It is a matter of interest 
to note that no less than eight porches, four on the first floor, three on the second, 
and a service porch on the North, have been incorporated into a style which knew 
originally nothing of America and its affection for these outdoor living rooms. 
The individuality in the workmanship of the interiors and of the exterior detail is 
sufhciently apparent from the illustrations of the entrance gable and of the dining 
room. 

The contrast between such residences as those discussed in the preceding 
paragraphs, and others illustrated of the same character, and the effective barren- 
ness of such a type as the summer home of Mr. Frederick G. Hall at Gloucester, is 
enlightening. The architecture has been largely determined by the personality of 
the site upon which the house was to be erected. Mr. Hall’s home is so obviously 
suited to its situation on a barren acre of ledge, pitching sharply from the public 
road to the waterside, that it needs no emphasis. The waves beat upon its sturdy 

[ 200 ] 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


lower walls and below its windows the fishing vessels lie safe at anchorage. The 
house, with its garage, studio building, gateways and secluding walls, is built of a 
beautiful varicolored granite set in white mortar. The stones of varying size and 
shape were blasted from the site in excavating for the cellar. From the level of 
the public way a road circles down through the rocky forecourt enclosure and the 
visitor steps through a door into a peaceful courtyard around three sides of which 
is built the house. From the cloistered way descending to the level of the main 
house the view is into the reflections of a quiet pool, with a flash of gold fish 
among the lily pads. On the harbor side of the house are terraces and covered 
porches along the entire length. Steps connect the various levels and lead to the 
sheer ledge and the landing pier. At the southerly end, on a ledge, the studio of 
the owner, a well known Boston painter, seems to spring from the water. High walls, 
through which various gateways give unexpected water views, link this building 
with the house and the garage. Mr. Hall has expressed his individuality both 
inside and outside the house. 


The chief point in building a home is, naturally, that it should honestly 
represent the owner’s preferences. If his mood be for the Elizabethan Picturesque, 
as it is defined in this chapter, the illustrations provide him with the best examples 
which have been erected in this country. 


“WILSON EYRE & McILVAINE, Architects 


RESIDENCE OF MR. WALTER M. JEFFORDS 


Mr. Jeffords’ home near Media, Pennsylvania, is situated on the slope of a hill which looks out on the broad 
meadows and colorful rolling land characteristic of the best hunting country in Pennsylvania. The estate con- 
sists of more than a thousand acres. Note how well it has been tied to the ground through its terraces 


[ 201 ] 


WILSON EYRE & McILVAINE, Architects 


RESIDENCE OF MR. WALTER M. JEFFORDS 


ined by the existence 
i te 


incorpora 


“Hunting Hill Farm” seems defi- 


try. 


ia coun 


The architecture of the house was more or less predeterm 
as a hunting lodge for some time and which they wished to 


nN. 
ing 


the traditions and the character of the Pennsylvan 


ite of, or because of, its British origi 
h the family had been us 


The stone house has proved itself best adapted to 
uf a little stone farmhouse whic 


nitely a part of the soil in sp 


WILSON EYRE & McILVAINE, Architects 


HALL OF MR. WALTER M. JEFFORDS’ RESIDENCE 


The character of this hallway is so in sympathy with those of the great English country houses where hunting 

has also been the chief interest that it would not seem an affectation to find a dog-gate on the first landing, as 

in the stairway of Cold Overton, Leicestershire. Incidentally, the stone walls emphasize the real reason for 
being of the tapestry, which was originally designed to illumine large stone-lined rooms 


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Photo. by John Wallace Gillies WALKER & GILLETTE, Architects 


RESIDENCE OF MR. WILLIAM R. COE AT OYSTER BAY 


This is a view of one of the South gables of the house. The photograph opposite is from the South looking 
into the court; the view gained through the long vista shown in one of the chapters on gardens. From this front 
are seen the sunken gardens and the turquoise pool 


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Photo. by John Wallace Gillies GILLETTE, Architects 


WALKER & 
HALLWAY OF THE WILLIAM R. COE RESIDENCE 


This is the entrance hall, of old stone, slate tiles and hewn timbers, with a Fifteenth Century tapestry over the 
fireplace. As is stated in the text, the detail of the house is Tudor with a touch of Norman. Here the Nor- 
man arch has been most successfully handled 


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BELLOWS & ALDRICH, Architects 


RESIDENCE OF MR. FREDERICK G. HALL AT GLOUCESTER 


This home of one of Boston’s well known painters is an example of the Elizabethan Picturesque style when it is 
of Scotch derivation. It is soberer, with a lack of the exuberant fancy noted in the buildings erected in Eng- 
land at the same time. Here the only decorations are the grotesque heads at the head of rough hewn pillars 


BELLOWS & ALDRICH, Architects 


RESIDENCE OF MR. FREDERICK G, HALL AT GLOUCESTER 


This view gives an excellent idea of the sturdy characteristics of the architecture and of the location of the house 
on the eastern shore of Gloucester Harbor. The very simply treated pool is the feature of the forecourt about 
which the house is built. Mr. Hall’s studio is in a separate building barely indicated at the left of the illustration 


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Photo. by John Wallace Gillies LEWIS COLT A 


COUNTRY HOME OF MR. GEORGE ARENTS, JR., AT RYE 


This is an example of the derivation of the Tudor rendered into something absolutely American and domestic in 

contrast to the institutional effect which the Tudor work so often has. It is a pleasant, fanciful, rather gentle 

style, obviously suited to its location and as patently out of key with a site such as Mr. Frederick G. Hall has 
chosen for his Gloucester home 


LBRO, Architect 


ROM Bone 


. 
3 ee ns Si 


JOHN RUSSELL POPE, Architect 
RESIDENCE OF MR. ALLAN S. LEHMAN AT TARRYTOWN 


A strong breeze at the time the photograph was taken makes the tree instrumental in expressing the picturesque 
note emphasized in the whole structure. This is the West terrace, which seems to embody the spirit of domes- 
ticity as interpreted in a Tudor derivation. This terrace replaces the protective moat of the original 


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Photo. by John Wallace Gillies JOHN RUSSELL POPE, Architect 


THE LONG GALLERY IN MR. STUART DUNCAN’S RESIDENCE 


The long gallery, one of the vital features of the Elizabethan house, shows the dining room at the end of the 

vista. ‘The details in the photograph are worth noting; the substantial treatment of the handsomely wrought 

metal door, the beautifully molded ceiling, the chests and a ship model on its sturdy support; all so well within 
the spirit of the time of which it is reminiscent 


Photo. by John Wallace Gillies JOHN RUSSELL POPE, Architect 


THE MAIN STAIRCASE IN MR. STUART DUNCAN’S RESIDENCE 


In the Elizabethan picturesque house the staircase, instead of being gracefully and lightly circular, or 
tucked into a wall, as it was in most pre-Elizabethan architecture, became one of the features of the house. The 
general attitude of importance and affection to which these staircases are entitled is very adequately interpreted 


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WALKER & GILLETTE, Architects 


DETAIL OF A FIREPLACE IN MR. LAMONT’S RESIDENCE 


The mantelpiece is an unusual and particularly interesting antique. Its position in relation to the 
woodwork in the fine library will be noted in a preceding illustration. Observe the individuality and 
interest of the decoration; the ecclesiastical type of the figures in the recesses, divided from each 
other by effective architectural motives. All the ornament is freely rendered and rich in character 


Photo. by John Wallace Gillies WALKER & GILLETTE, Architects 


DOORWAY IN MR. THOMAS W. LAMONT’S LIVING ROOM 


This doorway fulfills the expectations of those who respond to the joy of the Jacobean carver in the elaboration 

of a vigorous design. It does exactly what it is intended to do; it supplies one of the chief decorative interests 

of the room and, as will be seen by consulting the illustration of the room itself, is entirely in the spirit of the 
antique mantel which also enriches a bare wall space 


CHA PT ERs Tay. 


THE MODERN PICTURESQUE 


Unpber the definition of Modern Picturesque are included two groups of 
buildings. In the first are places in which are blended so many elements that it 
is inadvisable to attempt to assign them to any one of the previous chapters. 
Perhaps the most outstanding example of this type is the residence of Mr. 
Thomas Hastings of Carrere & Hastings, erected for himself in Westbury, Long 
Island. A first glimpse makes one think of the Georgian period in England, a 
second shows that the architect was inspired by a strong feeling of reverence for the 
Italian Renaissance. Then the eye begins to pick up detail that is French. And 
the general plan is undoubtedly the product of American needs. Another example 
is the Robert L. Bacon house, also at Westbury, which is the Colonial idea influ- 
enced by the Italian. 

What is more particularly in mind in this chapter, however, is a very special 
and a very modern type first developed by British architects and only imported to 
this side of the water within very recent years—a type founded on a glorification 
of the peasants’ cottages of England and France. ‘These have remained more 
‘‘lizabethan’”’ (in the sense of that word as used in the previous chapter) than 
any other domestic building. Consequently, at first glimpse, a distance view, a 
house in the modern picturesque manner is not at all dissimilar to the Elizabethan 
Picturesque as just described. A closer view, however, shows that the Modern 
Picturesque, while retaining all of the Elizabethan feeling for the delightful 
incongruities of minor portions, for special sub-sections, beautiful in themselves 
as well as in relation to the whole, still admits a lack of the true Elizabethan 
feeling that a wood carver with a‘mallet, chisel, and strong muscles has been turned 

[2264 


AMERICAN: HOMES: OF. TO: DAY 


loose to do his utmost. In other words, the Modern Picturesque building is rather 
inclined to be picturesque in -initial plan rather than in accidental local develop- 
ment. In; addition to the lack of quasi-gargoyle adornment the Modern Pictur- 
esque type tends to be finished either in dark red brick or in stucco. There is a 
very general absence of all adornment, pillars, urns, cupids et alii, traceable to the 
Italian. The Modern Picturesque is of all contemporaneous styles the most 
modern in feeling and it is a curious blending of the passion for simplicity which 
now controls us, together with an urge for the asymmetrical which will not down 
even in 1924. ‘This style appeals especially to. those who, in Carlyle phrase, 
have swallowed previous formule, who have, perhaps, outgrown the attitude of 
mind which permits them to take their country house architecture too seriously, 
who want to play a little with house design. ‘This is the urge to which all improve- 
ment in architecture is due. It is also the itch which leads to the monstrosities 
which our grandfathers used to call Jones’s Folly. So far, at least, this country 
has been rather fortunate in examples of the picturesque type which have been 
erected. 

The Modern Picturesque has certain easily recognizable characteristics, in 
addition to.the fact that it makes you think of a group of English cottages. First 
and foremost it is conscientiously asymmetrical, the type which our English cousins 
call the sun-trap house. There is usually one basic wing from which a number of 
others radiate, each one figured out to get the morning, the noon, and setting sun, 
or a glimpse across a certain meadow, or over Peconic Bay. As a subsidiary aid 
to this principle of planning, the house is usually erected on sloping ground with 
two or three levels so that as one circumnavigates its walls every few yards bring 
a different angle of vision, a new Series of pictures. Just as in its prototype cottage 
there is always a sense of the structure being low lying and well tied down to the 
ground, one has a feeling of driving down into its forecourt rather than ascending 
to stately distances and spectacular views. The Modern Picturesque type must be 
intimate or it fails. Its most noticeable feature has been reserved till the last; the 
roofs of European peasants’ cottages, at least in England and in France, are covered 
generally with either thatch or slate and are high peaked. Furthermore the 
ridge line of these buildings, in the process of centuries, has sagged from the true 

eva 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


and assumed a characteristic flexibility bespeaking century worn wooden supports 
within. This effect the modern architect has striven most determinedly to repro- 
duce. Actual thatch is, of course, impracticable for general use, but one of the 
illustrations to this chapter shows an attempt to reproduce its general effect in 
more durable material. Most of the buildings in the Modern Picturesque manner 
are roofed in slate, in the color selection and size gradation of which meticulous effort 
has been expended to achieve what a famous local contemporary has designated 
as the carefully careless look. This point is especially elaborated with a discussion 
of the Sabin house later in this chapter. 

The definition of Modern Picturesque applies only to the exterior of the 
building; there is no such thing as a Modern Picturesque interior. The note of 
the interior is taken from the general period and locality of which the exterior is a 
picturesque-ization. The most outstanding example of this is to be seen in the 
Sabin house at Southampton, Long Island. This house was erected by the archi- 
tects, Messrs. Cross & Cross, in very close codperation with Mrs. Sabin, who has a 
definite feeling for the most delicate type of English interior decoration. Precisely 
as the exterior is unmistakably English in general tone and is exquisitely 
proportioned and considered in detail, so the interior contains some of the most 
perfect specimens of the extremely restrained and graceful English manner to be 
found in America. These interiors might very properly have been included in the 
Fifth Chapter devoted to a discussion of the Adam feeling, but have been 
reserved for inclusion here in order that the Sabin house may be seen more as 
a unit. Incidentally, a very charming exterior has already been given in the 
illustrations for the second chapter. 

Mrs. Charles Cary Rumsey’s residence at Wheatley Hills, Long Island, has 
all the quality of an old English squire’s residence. The house is just that sort of a 
rambling, comfortable place and the beautiful rolling country, of a type made for 
riding over, contributes to this impression. The individuality of the house is due, 
in part, to the fact that it has been developed through a series of alterations, 
additions having been made at different times. The first of these additions was in 
the shape of a breakfast room, which is decorated with black and white monkeys 
from Robert Chanler’s fantastic brush. Then a large sun parlor was thrown out 

(22 


VovVle hur Nee LOM IGS, OF TO-DAY 


towards the south, to which was added a little porch at the eastern end, with a 
sleeping porch above it. This room is entirely of glass with old tiles inserted in 
the green lattice panels. Later a service wing was extended. The ensemble, as 
is realized from the illustration, is very charming. The silhouette of the hounds, 
cut in the shutters, is symbolic of the interests of the country and of the various 
amusing works of this character, by Hunt Diederich, inside the house; a bas-relief 
hunting scene carved in stone for an overmantel frieze and tall metal standards 
supported by hounds at each side of the fireplace in the big living room. It is 
a country house which, in the interiors, lives up to the promise of personality in 
the details of the exterior. It answers very attractively to the definition of the 
Modern Picturesque. 

Another very smart little English house in America is the cottage at Jericho, 
Long Island, built for Mrs. William K. Vanderbilt II. The characteristic feature 
is, primarily, the roof, a composition imitation of the old country thatch. It has 
been colored by hand to make the resemblance complete. Another interesting 
note is that the stucco has been treated to conform to the apparent age of the roof. 
This was put over an absolutely waterproof surface and the last coat purposely 
crackled to give the desired effect. Then the chimneys and the shingled bits were 
brought into the picture. For the former discarded brick was used because of the 
irregularities in shape and the variety in coloring. Farmers were given new shingles 
in exchange for old ones covered with moss; and for the trim around the windows 
and for other work of this kind, old wood from the barns originally on the site was 
used. Old-fashioned lead flashings over the windows, projecting out about four 
inches, contribute their verification to the architects’ version of an old English 
cottage, to which the windmill, modeled after an original in England, adds a very 
plausible postscript. 

Mr. Thomas Hastings’ home at Old Westbury, Long Island, has a little of 
the French, the English and the Italian, yet is planned for American needs. There- 
fore it fits admirably into this chapter. The interiors have a certain feeling for 
the effectiveness of English development. The entrance, with its central arch, is 
Italian. Other details have a memory of the French. The house is set in the native 
woods and is planned for seclusion rather than for views. The charm of an alley 

2298) 


AMERTCGAN? HOMES) OF POe Diy 


of linden trees, which outlines the court on one side, the ivy covered retaining wall 


which encloses it at the other, and the stables and garage group which close the 


Southern end are very satisfactorily explained by the photographs. 
The home of Mr. and Mrs. Robert L. Bacon at Westbury, Long Island, is on 


the estate of Mr. Bacon’s mother, Mrs. Robert Bacon, being situated on a knoll to 


Ss 


Courtesy of Town & Country DELANO & ALDRICH, Architects 


HOME OF THE MISSES PARSONS AT LENOX, MASSACHUSETTS 


Another view: of: the residence of Miss Mary and Miss Gertrude Parsons at 

Lenox shows how pleasantly it is, set and how well it is embraced with 

trees. This illustration)makes’a*point of the flat grass terrace, so easy of 
access from the house, providing a view over the valley 


the east of the larger 


residence. The house; 


while influenced prima- 
rily by Colonial ideas, 
is sO reminiscent, in the 
execution of the work, 
of the smaller Italian 
villas, that it is well 
suited for inclusion in 
this chapter. The Ital- 
ian insinuation is easily 
understood ‘because, as 
is shown in another 
chapter, one of the char- 
acteristics. of the best 
Italian work is the plain 
wall surface, and the 
small windows, sparsely 
dispersed. In the pres- 
ent instance, however, 
the expanse of wall ‘sur- 
face has been the-result 
of a direct consideration 
of the plan. The en- 


trance court is __ par- 


tially defined on one’-side by the wall of the service wing of the house and the 


court has been otherwise fully enclosed by a brick wall, somewhat after ‘the Italian 


L230] 


BOVE eC ASN | Oe MESS* OOF TO). DAY 


Photo. by John Wallace Gillies MARIAN C. COFFIN, Landscape Architect 


RESIDENCE OF MR. AND MRS. CHARLES H. SABIN 


This photograph of the Peconic Bay side of the house shows the three garden levels. The wall at the left marks 

the location of the flat grass terrace. This wall and the wall of the garden enclose the intermediate planting of 

shrubs and evergreens. An oblong lily pond, well surrounded with border planting, is barely discerned in the 
foreground of the illustration 


fashion. This wall enclosing the entrance court is, of course, a relic of the time 
when the protection of entrance doors was a matter of practical necessity, but aside 
from its historical significance, there is an amount of intimacy and semi-privacy 
given by treatment of this sort which needs no further reason for being than the 
quality of the result. To our modern eyes it has no sinister suggestion of an enemy 
outside the gates but rather takes the form of a welcome at the gate, of an invita- 
tion into the house before the threshold is actually passed. Yet it retains, to a 
degree, the pleasant sense of protection, even though from no greater danger than 
the wind and weather. 

The overhanging balcony of the front entrance of the Bacon residence serves 
two purposes; one is to offer additional protection to the door itself and the other 
is to give space and balcony room to the little guest room above it. From the view 
shown of the exterior it is possible to appreciate the effective placing of the circular 
headed window which is a frank indication of the stair hall on the inside, seen in 
the full page illustration. In this stair hall the architect has designed a free- 
standing stair, the technic and execution of which he seems to have mastered com- 
pletely. In spite of its lightness and airiness, accentuated by the thinness and 

ge Lael 


ANCE REG ANS EO NUE Se Od Oe saa 


careful detail of the iron balustrade and the mahogany handrail, this stairway is 
structurally very rigid, giving an impression of exactness, a nice observance of the 
more aristocratic building practicalities which is in character with the rest of the 
construction. Its charm is, of course, greatly enhanced by the fact that the walls 
are severely plain in treatment. ‘This stair is a very satisfactory example of what 
is known as an easy stair, that is, one which is comfortable for everyone to ascend 
because of the variation afforded by the treads in accommodating themselves to the 
circular design. 

A certain additional charm has been given to Mr. Bacon’s house by the 
ingenious use of a whitewash preparation on the brick walls which has worn off 
just enough to give an agreeable texture and to suggest the masonry construction. 
The pleasing effect secured through this treatment is appreciated in the illustration 
given of the exterior, where there is more than a hint of the variety of surface 


obtained. As will be observed, it is felt even in the chimneys which add much 


to the impression of style because of the originality of their design and disposition. 


: : 2 eon 
Photo. by John Wallace Gillies 


FRANK EATON NEWMAN, Architect 


_ 


SEASIDE COTTAGE OF MR. AND MRS. ROBERT APPLETON 


The roof is obviously derived from the thatched cottages of England, the turning of the shingles over the edges 

approximating cleverly the softened outlines of the original. The hooded wall of a sunken garden, protected 

from the sea breezes, is seen at the right. The cottage is on one of the sand dunes, overlooking the golf course, 
at East Hampton, Long Island. The ocean is about five hundred feet away 


[ie252e| 


AMERIGAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


In color the house depends for accent on its dark blue blinds and its carefully 
disposed trees, the roof being a soft gray which does not claim undue attention 
and yet has a tendency to emphasize the perspective which is quite valuable to 
the architect’s theme. 

A similar use of whitewash is observed in another illustration in this chapter, 
which, in deference to the owner’s wish not to have his name mentioned, is called 
merely a residence in Far Hills, New Jersey. This residence was built from the 
rubble stone of the foundation walls of an old farmhouse originally on the site. 
It is an example of the Modern Picturesque feeling that, when this stone ran out, 
instead of getting more stone, the architects used brick, as in the library wing, and 
stucco on terra cotta blocks in the service wing, encouraging the atmosphere of an 
old house which has been added to from time to time. This variation of material 
is not only on the most friendly terms with the site but with the picturesque infor- 
mality of the plan, which has been run on angles, in a pleasant, haphazard fashion, 
to take advantage of the views in different directions and to work in some fine old 


trees that existed originally on the site. The three materials have been unified by 


PEABODY, WILSON & BROWN, Architects 
THE RESIDENCE OF MR. AND MRS. COURTLANDT D. BARNES AT MANHASSET 


A perfect example of the very Modern Picturesque type developed in brick, with a slate roof, It is a quite 
conscious but very entertaining arrangement of wide gables and keen-edged roof lines. Though it makes some 
slight use of dormers, it places little dependence on them for decoration, for which the location of the single 
type of cottage chimney, as distinct from the grouped chimneys, and the disposal of the windows, is relied upon 


£.23a4 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


the coat of whitewash already mentioned. In style, the house seems to convey 
different messages to different people. It has been called Colonial, it has been 
likened to’a‘French manor house. It has been admired as English. It has Colo- 
nial detail in the porch. But it cannot be catalogued except so far as it is cata- 
logued here, as an example of the Modern Picturesque. Interiors of this residence 
are shown in another chapter. 

The home of Miss Mary and Miss Gertrude Parsons at Lenox, Massachusetts, 
is an example of a house that has been taken off the top of'a hill and set down well 


€ ¥ 


‘ % 3 e z Becket ty er oe 
Courtesy of Town & Country CROSS & OROSS, Architects 


A RESIDENCE AT FAR HILLS, NEW JERSEY 


A’ Modern Picturesque type which is founded on the Colonial farmhouse idea yet has connotations of 
both the French farmhouse and the English cottage. It is composed of three materials, rubble stone, 
brick and stucco on terra cotta blocks, unified with a coat of whitewash 


[ 234 J 


AMERICAN HOMES. OF T:0-DAY 


into the landscape at-the bottom of it. The core of the present residence was a 
very old homestead, of which the architects took what they wanted and then pro- 
ceeded to build rooms around it to produce the engaging results seen in two of 
the illustrations. One of the views gives a hint of the attractive manner in which 
the house hugs the ground and the part which the garage and ice house have had in 
pulling the structure out to the required length. It is not possible for the photo- 
graph to show the architects’ emphasis-on the effectiveness of a down-grade drive 
into the entrance court. It does show the large amount of wall space which has 
been so skilfully utilized. We used to build our houses as high on a hill as was 
feasible and surrounded them with a lawn solemnized with geometric garden units. 


Now we frequently see the advantage of bringing our houses down from this ele- 


vated and public position and settling them comfortably in among enough trees to 


Photos. by Mattie Edwards Hewitt DELANO & ALDRICH, Architects 


HOME OF THE MISSES PARSONS AT LENOX, MASSACHUSETTS 


Another example of a house which has been set well down into the landscape, at the foot of a hill, with the drive- 

way following a downward grade into the entrance court, as opposed to the popular American.custom of set- 

ting a-house on the top of a hill. The court is enclosed in. a square wall of stucco and the garage and ice 
house help to accentuate the long lines of the structure 


[ 235 ] 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


soften the edges and not enough to promote dampness. The Misses Parsons’ house 
is nicely embraced with trees, with a big elm as the most imposing veteran of 
them all. The walls of the house are of yellowish gray; the roof of variegated 
slate with a tendency to blues and greens. The trimmings are strong blue. It is 


o°, in our almost 


another example of those smart smaller houses which are becoming, 1 


servantless country, more popular every day. 

The summer home of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Appleton at East Haniiren is 
quite definitely a seaside cottage. It is built directly on one of the dunes over- 
looking the golf course. The architecture is based on the view, which is over a 
broad, beautiful expanse of natural country, embracing green hills on one side of 
the dunes and the ocean on the other. 
The chief interest of the house itself is 
centered in the roof which is similar, in 
effect, to the English thatched roof, a 
likeness fostered by the manner in which 
the shingles are bent over the edges. 
These are wide cedar shingles which 
turn an earthy ay instead of the more 
customary silver. The weathering is 
from two and a half inches (interesting 
in comparison to the inches exposed in 
the clapboards of Mr. Charles Smithers’ 
residence in the Colonial chapter). At 
the right of the illustration will be noted 
a hooded wall which encloses a cosy little 


sunken garden which affords protection 


CROSS & CROSS, Architects from the ocean breezes, incorporates a 


HOME OF MR. AND MRS. SABIN shaded seat for tea time or an hour’s 


There is a touch of Italian or Spanish in the little ‘ oo 
iron hooded balcony set so daintily on the broad gable _ reading, and has an artistic relation to the 


of the breakfast room ‘ 
lines of the house. Mr. Appleton’s cot- 
tage is in sympathy with the low-toned harmonies of the old houses in the town and 
in character with the country, as has been said. Its wide surfaces and its overhang- 


P23Ga 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


ing roofs give opportunity for strong sun and shadow plays and the fenestration of 
the stairway and the care used to make all the openings and doorways personal 
and interesting add much to its success as a seashore cottage of a very likable and 
legitimate type. The seashore cottage is, admittedly, a difficult problem. It lacks 
background. The only color is the color of the ocean, converted into a hot glare 
at certain portions of the day. The country is flat; there is no framework of woods 
to foster the picturesque element. The architect is safest in working, as 
Mr. Newman has done, for answering contrasts in light and shade. 

“Bayberry Land,” the Southampton residence of Mr. and Mrs. Charles H. 
Sabin, is on Peconic Bay, next door to the National Golf Links. This means that 
it is in that interesting, rolling country which we know as the Shinnecock Hills. 
According to the newer traditions in American architecture, the house has been 
flattened out gracefully in a hollow, the ideal being to settle it in the ground as if 
it had been there as long as the sands themselves. ‘To reach the house you pass 
over a ridge, drive 
through the _ garage, 
which serves as a gate 
lodge, down into the 
forecourt (as in the case 
of the Misses Parsons’ 
home), the walls of 
which help to keep the 
house tied to the ground. 
Walls are, altogether, a 
very vital part of the 


layout. The grass ter- 


race on the Peconic Ba a . 
y MARIAN C. COFFIN, Landscape Architect 


HOME OF MR. AND MRS. SABIN 


m A little hint of the informality of the garden, which is in the English man- 
alae red cedars gBUBE ner, the main influence of the house itself. It is very delightfully done 


i / eae 
side is walled in from 


side and the rough plant- 

ing on the other. The gardens are enclosed in walls, ending with a retaining wall 

at the top of the cliff. Brick walls confine the rose garden at the end of the living 
ee 7et 


AMERIGAN HOMES OtecLOS bay 


room porch. It is all very delightful and rather English, just as the house is tem- 
peramentally old English, though it has other touches, that little bit of the breakfast 
room gable, which has a hint of Italian or Spanish in a small iron hooded balcony 
set daintily on the broad gable, as illustrated in one of the smaller plates, and the 
detail of the entrance, which has no precedent yet makes such an alluring approach. 
It all makes for charm. 

The Sabin house is built entirely of terra cotta blocks and concrete, stuccoed, 
with a little stone introduced to add to the interest. The stucco used is of a gray 
green tone which harmonizes with the surrounding hills. Particularly worth 
noticing is the stone roof with slates an inch thick, laid so that no gutters are neces- 


Photo. by M. E. Hewitt . CROSS & CROSS, Architects 


DINING ROOM IN THE CHARLES H. SABIN RESIDENCE 


This photograph of one wall in the dining room is a particularly lovely Eighteenth Century arrangement, with 

a portrait of Alexander, Fourth Duke of Gordon, by Sir Henry Raeburn, at the right and George Romney’s 

portrait of “Mr. Forbes,” Lieutenant of the Royal Horse Guards, at the left of the mirror. Everywhere 

throughout the residence is that discrimination in the selection and disposition of fine things evidenced in these 
two views of this room, which together form a perfect dining room scene 


(32385) 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


sary, the work having been entirely done by Welshmen, the only workmen who 
know how to lay a roof of this type in America. At the ridge of the roof a sag 
has been made of about three inches, this departure from the rule making just the 
difference between pleasure and indifference in looking at it. All the lines of the 
house are just off the straight in the way that a building would settle in time. 
The way in which the living room wing has been turned to accommodate itself to 
the view over the garden and bay is another amusing idea which the picturesque 
type of building makes permissible. It is as successful as it seems casual. This 
living room is, as it should be, a huge room, thirty by forty feet, with a ceiling 


seventeen feet high. 


Photo. by M. E. Hewitt CROSS & CROSS, Architects 


DINING ROOM IN THE CHARLES H. SABIN RESIDENCE 


In this chapter it has been said that there is no typical Modern Picturesque interior. The two views shown of Mrs. 
Sabin’s dining room prove this point. It is as essentially rather formal English as the house is, externally, very 
casual English, with exotic touches. The fireplace here is scaled to the proportions of the overmantel painting 


[ 239 |) 


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Photo. by John Wallace Gillies CROSS & CROSS, Architects 


AN APPRECIATION OF LINE IN THE SABIN RESIDENCE 


Here is a little porch tucked in between the living room and library to provide another architectural fea- 

ture and one more outdoor sitting room. Note the effective sag and swell of the Welsh slate roof, which 

comes smartly down, close to the ground, in the half gable over the doorway. Observe the occasional use 
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CROSS & CROSS, Architects 
DETAIL OF THE ENTRANCE DOOR OF THE SABIN HOME 


This is, of course, a close view of the doorway shown opposite. It provides an opportunity to appreciate the 
value of the grassed spaces, each with its single small cedar, at each side of the door, and to get another glimpse 
of the stone roof, with slates an inch thick 


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Photo. by John Wallace Gillies JOHN RUSSELL POPE, Architect 


STAIRWAY IN THE HOME OF MR. AND MRS. ROBERT L. BACON 


Modern mastery of technic and execution as revealed in a free-standing stair which, in spite of its lightness and 

airiness, accentuated by the thinness and careful detail of the iron balustrade, and the mahogany handrail, is 

structurally very rigid, giving an impression of exactness, a nice observance of the more aristocratic building 
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a re 


CHAPTER ELEVEN 


THE MEDITERRANEAN MODEL 


THE fact that America, geographically, covers about as much ground as 
Europe, plus its adjacent islands, makes it very difficult, in fact impossible, to 
lay down any series of principles which will apply to all four corners of the country. 
This is just as true of architecture as of anything else. The previous chapters have 
concerned themselves only with the Atlantic coast from Maine to South Carolina 
and with the country immediately West as far as the Eastern base of the Rocky 
Mountains. Barring over-emphasized but relatively unimportant variations of 
detail, architectural taste and development have kept common step in this territory, 
so much so that it might be considered an architectural unit. There are two parts 
of the country to which practically all that has been said before this chapter does 
not in the least apply—the far Southwest and the extreme South, or to limit them 
still further, California and Florida. While of course their discovery and sparse 
settlement was contemporaneous with that of the rest of the country (Florida, I 
hasten to add, for fear somebody will accuse me of not knowing it, having the 
reputation of being the earliest European settlement on the American mainland), 
their acquisition of sufficient population and wealth to warrant the erection of houses 
with any claims to architectural style at all is a matter of comparatively recent years 
—say, since the Civil War. Most Californians will admit that it took at least a 
decade or so for the Pacific Coast to emerge from the status of a mining camp; 
and Broadway and Fifth Avenue’s discovery of Palm Beach and Miami is unques- 
tionably still more recent. The architectural styles previously described, Colonial, 
English, French, and North Italian, whatever their divergencies, have one point in 
common. ‘They are none of them constructed for a sub-tropical climate. The 
unprotected facade, the abundant window allowance, of the English and French 

(e2bee| 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


house of any period since the Gothic are based on a desire to let in the surrounding 
light and climate; while in Southern California and in Florida the chief necessity 
of a building is to keep them out. Even the North Italian villa is based upon usage 
in the hot weather of the temperate zone, rather than in tropical heats. 

It is a perfectly natural but not generally understood principle of racial 
immigration that nations move along lines of climate. Consequently such Span- 
iards as came to America unerringly headed for such portions of the country as 
exhibited the same blinding sun as their homeland, and proceeded to erect therein 
the dwellings in which their ancestors had been accustomed to dwell. When the 
Forty-Niners first reached California and the patrons of the Jacksonville Express 
first ventured to Palm Beach, they both found at their journey’s end the tradition 
of Spanish building and some scattered fragments of what might be called Spanish 
Colonial architecture, established by the Missions. It would be paying too high a 
tribute to the commonsense of human nature to state that the incoming northerners 
and easterners had the judgment to adopt these norms at once. ‘The earliest 
automobiles were made to look as much like a wagon without a horse in front as 
possible. So the first buildings erected on the hills of San Francisco or the sands 
of Florida were precisely the buildings which were going up in Bangor, in 
Schenectady, in Cleveland, or in Baltimore. However, about the same time that 
the rediscovery of architecture occurred in the northeast, a realization of the peculiar 
appropriateness of the generally Spanish type of architecture developed in the West 
and South; so that to-day there is a distinct and very flourishing school of architects 
developing buildings of this type, both in California and in Florida, the type which, 
for purposes of this book, has been called the Mediterranean. 

In all of the countries which have flourished along the Mediterranean littoral, 
from the prehistoric civilizations of the Mesopotamia Valley to the Iberian Penin- 
sula, all architecture but ecclesiastic has developed around a common form, that of 
a blank walled house, facing inward toward a central court. The Assyrians, the 
Egyptians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Turks, and the Spaniards have built or 
still build upon this principle. The only two countries contiguous to the Mediter- 
ranean which do not accept the enclosed central court as the indispensable feature 
of a house are France and Italy. Italy, it is true, partially accepted it, but early 

eeoert 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


attained an attitude of mind which permitted her in her country places of the 
Renaissance to open one side of the basic court to the outer world. Spain has not 
yet attained that attitude. As houses of the pre-Charlemagne period have abso- 
lutely no influence upon modern domestic architecture, and as the whole trend of 
influence in the Mediterranean Valley is most perfectly symbolized to us in Spain, 
modern American architects who have sought consciously to build for their clients 
perfect and consistent examples of Mediterranean architecture, have gone to Spain 
for their inspiration and their detail. 

Now the Spaniards who produced the type of building, copies of which are 
being erected in California and Florida, were a very curious people, judged by the 
standards of the average American of North European ancestry, and the buildings 
they evolved at about the beginning of the Sixteenth Century (the type we copy 
to-day) were produced as a result partially of climate and partially of the Spanish 
attitude towards life. It should never be forgotten that the Spanish peninsula 
was conquered and held by the Moors for nearly eight centuries, practically from 
the downfall of the Roman Empire of the West to the year of the discovery of 
America, when the last Moorish stronghold, Granada, was conquered by Ferdinand 
and Isabella. Most people know this fact from Velasquez’s well known painting of 
the subject, but they do not realize how long and how firm was the Moorish imprint 
on Spain, not in scattered architectural relics but in an attitude of mind. Spain 
of the Sixteenth Century was at least half Oriental, mentally. The only facets of 
this quality which interest us are those which express themselves most obviously 
in domestic architecture; they are a fear of one’s neighbors, and a distrust of one’s 
women. So, when the Spaniards of the Sixteenth Century erected houses they 
accentuated the normal Mediterranean features of a large, blank, easily defendable 
outer wall, with few, heavily barred outer windows, and a small entrance 
portal. The life of the household focused on a large inner courtyard or patio. 
There the communal life of the household functioned; there the well bred woman 
was supposed to spend her entire leisure time. Anyone who thinks this exaggerated 
is referred to the Spanish monk, who, at about this period, the early Sixteenth 
Century, censured noblewomen for going to church in public when they could just 
as well hear mass in their own castles. 

L 254 ] 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


Courtesy of The Architectural Record ARTHUR HEUN, Architect 


“MELODY FARM” AT LAKE FOREST, NEAR CHICAGO 


A garden view of the former residence of Mr. J. Ogden Armour which lies West of Lake Forest rather than in 
the exact confines of the Chicago suburb. This is a detail of an elaborate garden development of triple pools. 
An artificial lake of twenty acres with two tiny crown shaped islands is a feature of the estate 


Coupled with all this, there was a rude and elemental vigor which demanded 
expression in ornament. A similar streak in the Moors vented itself upon the patio; 
something, probably chance, though this is a point those more learned in the refine- 
ment of architectural history alone are qualified to argue about, developed in Spain 
the style known as Plateresque. A platero, in Spanish, is a silversmith. When 
the Italian Renaissance struck Spanish architecture in about the first decade of the 
Sixteenth Century, its influence there underwent much the same modification that 
Georgian architecture experienced when it struck the tool chest of a New England 
carpenter. Forms perfectly good in themselves were diverted to uses their creator 
never intended. The Spaniards of that time were an intensely proud, intensely 
bigoted, utterly self-satisfied, and completely ignorant people as far as anything 
outside of the Spanish Peninsula was concerned. They had precisely the attitude 
towards the rest of the world as the modern tired business man of New York. So 
when the Italian workmen invaded Spain, as they had previously done France, 
with their plaster casts and their drawings of the wonders of the Italian Peninsula, 
the Spanish architect and overseer took from this wealth of material designs 
intended by their creators to be expressed in silver and gold work, in monstrances 

L 255 | 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


for the cathedrals, in jeweled caskets for 
the palaces, and proceeded to wrap these 
designs around the entrance portals of 
their perfectly bare houses. In so doing 
they developed a new style, just as the 
American workman made the Colonial a 
different thing from the Georgian. 

A typical Plateresque house is a low 
lying structure, squarish in effect, with 
a low pitched roof of tiles and an outer 
wall of perfectly plain rugged stone or 
stucco, with two or three focal points, the 
door invariably, symmetrical flanking 


windows usually, enriched with the most 


elaborate carving executed from designs 


Gillies McCLURE & HARPER, Architects and on principles which in other coun- 
MR. JOHN J. RASKOB’S RESIDENCE 


This patio in the home of Mr. Raskob at Claymont, 


Delaware, is centered by a fountain by Charles Keck : «Wee 
the sculptor. It is a rather North Mediterranean type in metal. As the style was first originated 


showing strong Italian feeling in the double arcade 


tries were reserved for the use of workers 


when Renaissance met Gothic across the 
Spanish temperament, the detail is an unusual, entirely unacademic but quite pleas- 
ing combination of Gothic theories with Renaissance forms. The original Spanish 
examples were exuberant to the point almost of being grotesque. The earlier exam- 
ples, the usually recognized first instance of the Plateresque style in the work of 
Enrique de Egas, such things as the entrance of the Hospital of Santa Cruz in Toledo 
(Spain) and of the Royal Hospital in Santiago de Compostela are of unquestioned 
beauty. They overwhelm the intelligent observer precisely as does the West 
portico of Notre Dame, or the first twilight glimpse of the Cathedral of Milan. 
The Plateresque style needs a strong disciplinary spirit; otherwise it degenerates into 
something which might be described by a horsy person as having been sired by 
Pastry Cook out of Coney Island. Even within half a century of its invention they 
erected the Palace of Monterey at Salamanca in a style so obviously fitted for 
reproduction in lath and plaster that it has been used as a model by the Spanish 
[ 256 ] 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


Government for every World’s Fair building she has had to erect since; and the 
Palace of the Marquis de Dos Aguas in Valencia, erected in the Eighteenth Century 
in a style that we nowadays reserve for a holiday creation in marzipan, looks so 
sugary that one wonders it has stood the rain of more than two centuries. 

The point of all this is that it should be remembered that a Plateresque house 
for a person with Nordic antecedents is distinctly an exotic. When treated as such, 
as a playhouse, a summer place, an expression of the vacation mood against the 
sunlit background and warm climate and characteristic sub-tropical vegetation of 


Pasadena or Miami, it fits into the mental picture well enough. Effort should be 


DAVID ADLER, Architect 


RESIDENCE OF MR. AND MRS, RICHARD T. CRANE 


In the home of Mr. and Mrs. Richard T. Crane of Chicago at Jekyll Island, Georgia, there is a skilful Ameri- 
canization of the Mediterranean feeling in the introduction of the turf effect and of the vines. The photo- 
graph proves once more the appeal of the style and its adaptibility to outdoor living 


L 25% | 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


MYRON HUNT AND ELMER GRAY, Aeoidtects 
RESIDENCE OF MR. E. M. TAYLOR AT ALTADENA 


A Colonial type, derived from the old New Orleans houses, adapted to the contours of California. This is the 
South garden view showing the broad terrace and pool and the mountain background. The almond tree in full 
bloom is an inspiring detail of the picture. The house is built with many porches and much provision for out- 
door living. In certain views the heavy, brooding tropical trees are in dramatic contrast to the architecture 


ve } ‘item : Cie 
Photo. by F. W. Martin 


made, in so far as it is practical, and with all due and necessary concessions to 
modern insistence on domestic convenience, to keep the interior in the original 
Spanish feeling. Floors of tiling, walls of stone or stucco, gorgeous polychrome 
ceilings, huge structural arches, heavy furniture of Spanish or Italian model, a 
liberal use of ironwork and an avoidance of the more delicate styles definitely — 
associated with the Eighteenth Century in either England or France are, as the 
doctors would say, indicated. 

Side by side with the Plateresque styles in California there has developed 
another, a composite style which, in general effect, is that of a white clapboard 
house on the Southern Colonial idea, built by a man accustomed to erecting the 
type just described. Seen through an orchard setting it makes a pretty enough 
picture. Whether it fits as well with the stern rock of the hills back of it is a 
question, after all, for individual taste to decide. The residence of Mr. E. M. 
Taylor in Altadena, California, is one of the most successful of the clapboard 
houses and the illustration gives an impression of the great charm of its setting. 

[R25 5%] 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


The inspiration of the architecture is from the old New Orleans type, the French- 
Colonial. A grove of lemon trees secludes the residence from the road, the foliage 
being in excellent contrast to the white of the residence. The almond tree, which 
is a treasure of the foreground in the photograph, reflects into the pool which so 
engagingly mirrors the house. The architects of Mr. Taylor’s residence have also 
done some very interesting works in the Spanish influence in stucco. 

The residence built for Mr. J. Ogden Armour, just West of Lake Forest, illus- 
trated in one of the photographs, is an American version of the Mediterranean. 
The style is based, frankly, on the type of thing which the architect and the owners 
deemed rational and harmonious with the sort of life the family had planned to live 
there and with Mr. Armour’s intention of owning a sufficient number of acres on 
the development of which he expected to spend his energies when he retired from 
active business participation. Mr. Armour’s ambitions in this respect began 


systematically with the purchase of the sort of land which would best fulfill them, 


with the buying of twelve hundred acres or more of connecting farms which lay 


Photo. by A. Sturtevant 


COTTAGE ON THE ESTATE OF MRS. JOHN J. MITCHELL, JR. 


The photograph illustrates the main cottage of a group on the estate of the former Miss Lolita Armour, “El 

Mirador,” in the Montecito Valley which is being used as a temporary residence until the house has been erected. 

The cottages are of a modified Spanish type and, contrary to the Spanish custom, are set in a frame of foliage 
characteristic of California 


20a 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


i 


Photo. by Hiller MARSTON AND VAN PELT, Architects 


RESIDENCE OF MR. W, T. JEFFERSON AT PASADENA 


Mr. Jefferson’s home on South Grand Avenue is an interesting example of the bare fortress effect of the true 

Spanish type. This insinuation of old fighting days is emphasized by the bridge which spans a small moat, 

actually a natural barranco or small stream, and connects with the entrance door. The higher elevation of the 
central motive gives the hall greater height and gives room for the enrichment of the doorway 


about thirteen miles from his house in Chicago. It was because he wanted land 
that was usable rather than land that was merely pictorial that he bought property 
west of Lake Forest, rather than within the confines of Chicago’s most beautiful 
suburb, where the natural and handsome woodlands would not have lent them- 
selves to any consistent energizing of the farm idea. Our illustration gives, of 
course, no hint of these practical plans on the part of the owner. It shows the 
residence in a formal view which gives a hint of the water garden that makes the 
view from the West terrace especially entertaining. This is a traditional plan, 
designed for perspective and balanced beauty. The broad turf walk shown in the 
photograph extends between two oblong pools very cleverly planted. The view is 
extended over a second pool to a casino. Back of that is an artificial lake of twenty 
acres which extends along the Western shores of the estate and holds two tiny 
[ 260 ] 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


crown-shaped islands in its embrace. The main entrance to the house is through a 
large loggia and vestibule from a forecourt centered with a pool and fountain. The 
estate has, I understand, been sold and may, the rumor goes, become a hotel. 

- One of the illustrations shows the main cottage on the estate of Mrs. John J. 
Mitchell, Jr. (Miss Lolita Armour): ‘El Mirador,” in the Montecito Valley outside 
of Santa Barbara. This is an estate of sixty-five acres with certain elevations which 
command those views for which California is famous. The detail shown is one of a 
eroup of cottages designed for Mrs. Mitchell’s use as a temporary winter home, 


with the intention of building a large house later. In type these cottages are a 


t 


re 


MARSTON AND VAN PELT, Rpokatecta 
RESIDENCE OF MR. JOHN HENRY MEYER NEAR PASADENA 


This detail of Mr. Meyer’s residence provides an especially satisfying example of the Plateresque doorway under 

American treatment, which has so simplified and restrained it that it might almost be called a pre-Plateresque 

type. The grille work around the small windows on the ground floor, the little iron balustrades on the second, 
the character of the roof, all verify the Spanish implication 


26189 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


modification of the Spanish; they are 
constructed of hollow tiles and plaster. 
The main house and the chevalier cot- 
tage or guest house are connected by a 
sheltered loggia. The planting around 
the cottage includes excelsior palms, 
and other tropical growths. The trees 
above the roofs represent the euca- 
lyptus, live oak and other interesting 
and typical species. 

The residence of Mr. James Deer- 
ing at Miami was one of the sensations 
of seven or eight years ago, The 
architects were Mr. F. Burrall Hoff- 
Re eter oa man, Jr., and Mr. Paul Chalfin, but 
MRE. M8. MUCHMOBE: Devor* it is. Mr. Chalfini whogeemmoenmee am 


MR. WELLINGTON MORSE’S HOME : ss : 
At Pasadena. ‘This detail and that of the home of Mr. nitely associated with its exuberance. 


J. P. Jefferson are given as examples of the picturesque- ° ' : 
ness of the Plateresque feeling as simplified to American In the article which was published 


preference against a California background 


on it in Town & Country it was en- 
titled “A Florida Echo of the Glory of Old Venice,” and the photographs were 
referred to as “the outward and visible sign of the persistent and magnificent 
rumors which have been rippling through artistic circles for many months past.” 
As has been said, it was a sensation. Everywhere everyone seemed to know some- 
one who was doing something for the Deering house. ‘There were tales of weeks 
spent by expert fingers in constructing a grandly proportioned tassel to hang over 
a grandly proportioned bed; of ancient embroideries that were being lifted from 
their tattered silken foundations to be applied with infinite patience and skill to 
modern fabrics. The rumors of this Venetian splendor which was to glorify the 
already glorious blue waters of Florida were endless. As a final exclamation point 
to its magnificence Mr. John Singer Sargent requested permission to paint in the 
splendor of its Italian shadows. Our several illustrations give some slight idea of 
its motivation. 

L 262 ] 


AMERICANS HOMES OF TO-DAY 


As the illustrations intimate, water 
has entered very largely into the 
theme; it has been important to the 
color and to the determining of the 
architectural character. Perhaps it was 
a small island, lying between two sea 
arms developed into the symmetrical 
curves of the lower terrace, which start- 
ed the real magnificence of the effort. 
For the very location of this small 
island and its genuine value as a break- 
water demanded individual treatment. 
Seeing in it some resemblance to a 


great barge, it was Mr. Chalfin’s fancy 


to mount it with monumental figures 


REGINALD D. JOHNSON, Architect 


= ae : MR. J. P. JEFFERSON’S HOME 
Calder, at the bow, to equip it with At Montecito. An example of the American version of 


the Spanish enthusiasm for making the doorway the 


fountains and planting and pyramids jewel feature of the residence and leaving the walls 
plain. The planting is American 


by the American sculptor, A. Stirling 


and gay lighting, for the evening, and 
then to connect it romantically with the house by a gondola which, in its lazy grace, 
acknowledged no speedier means of communication. This is not to say that the 
island was developed before the house was built, but to emphasize its inclusion in the 
primary scheme and to point the impossibility there would have been of arriving at 
any satisfactory conclusion without giving this freakish little bit of water-surrounded 
land serious architectural consideration. “‘Hence it stands naturally as the pro- 
nunciamento of the architect’s ideas—the preface to the book of the house, an- 
nouncing to all who wish to read the note of joyousness and freedom from art con- 
ventions which is so strongly expressed both in the decoration of the residence and 
in the planning of the estate of one hundred and twenty-five acres.””’ Glamorous 
words, these, but suitable. 

The house itself dominates the upper of two terraces overlooking the Bay of 
Biscayne and the open sea in the direction of the Bahamas, the lower terrace being 

[ 263 ] 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


prolonged into the arms 
of stone already men- 
tioned, which terminate 
at one end in the yacht 
landing and at the other 
into the small tea house 
observed in one of the 
full-page _ illustrations. 
The upper of these ter- 
races is about twelve feet 
above the mean tide and 
leads to a point on the 
South overlooking the 


garden, where radiating 


e -" vistas, centered in the 
Hewitt PAUL CHALFIN, Architect garden room, have been 


ee planned to give minia- 
Swimming pool on Mr. James Deering’s estate at Miami, The ceiling fan- 


tasy is by Robert Chanler. It involves fish carved in bas relief and a ture pictures, which in- 
clude here and there a 
glimpse of the sparkling, jewel-like waters of the lake. On the Western facade the 
wide, triple allée of the drive leads straight through the woods, up a gentle slope 
and out towards the gates in less formal lines. On the North a long turf walk, 
bordered by trees, ambles past ancient sculpture to the winding of an underwood 
promenade. So skilfully has the estate been planned that the progress along the 
allée, with its low-voiced waterways hidden under ilex trees, is full of the pleasant- 
est surprises. The climax of the unexpected is the house itself, which has been 
carefully screened by the planting and which is finally reached through the iron 
grilles and open arcades of the first loggia. Here the sounds of water, remote and 
near, dropping, falling, rushing water, water in fountains, are heard, and glimpses 
of a gallery beneath broad, overhanging roofs give a hint of the importance of the 
courtyard plan. 
An impression of the color and texture, impossible to be gained from the 


[ 264 ] 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


photographs, is given in the following 
description. The vestibule is of a reti- 
cent Empire coolness, emerald green, 
with dusty black on the wall, echoed 
by deeper blacks mingling with the 
cream of the marble floors. This is a 
French touch. Next is the library, where 
the impersonal grays and clear Adam 
yellows are vivified with a breath of 
orange. In contrast to its aristocratic 
pale tones is the darkly gleaming ob- 
scurity of the reception room with murky 
old mirrors, high silken walls with a pat- 
tern of palm trees rising tall and golden 


in a silvery green sky from a ledge-like 


golden base. Crossing a valuted pas- Hewitt PAUL CHALFIN, Architect 
THE ENTRANCE COURT 


One of the two Seventeenth Century marble fountains 


+c. from Venice used to screen the court into privacy, is 
through the half outdoors, so characteris- cen" in ‘the illustration, ‘The North colonnade. illus- 


trated on a later page is seen at the right 


sage of stone, carved and vermiculated, 


tic of many parts of the house, the great 
living room is reached. Here is found the grave and high textured beauty of the 
Renaissance as expressed in the closely ornate tapestry, in the grandeur of the 
velvet and embroideries, in its solemnity, emphasized by the one wall of uninter- 
rupted textiles, by the tall columns by Cippolino, of Fleur de Péche, and 
Numidian marble. Through the Eastern windows, facing the sea, the sound 
is heard of the waves lapping softly and ceaselessly against the long stone steps of 
the lower terrace. Going partly indoors again an open loggia is crossed, where severe 
and cool forms on the walls and vaults are enlivened by the gaiety of cushions and 
of bright informal willow furniture disposed among the Roman marbles, behind a 
sturdy system of great awnings and curtains of Venetian blue and yellow. The 
airy blues and golds of this loggia influence the lights and shadows of the shaded 
music room beyond, which is pervaded by a frivolous sort of grandeur. There are 
smiling busts of Cupid, exotic bits of coral, garlands on a fabulous and impossible 
26a 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


painted échafaudage looking down 
on conscious groups. of elaborate 
chairs ranged in a stately formality. 
Beyond lies another grave room, the 
large dining room, glorified with tapes- 
tries of the most minute mille fleurette. 
The walls are painted in the simplest 
water color; the vast curtains are linen 
with gay silks darned in an open band 
of bright colors, throwing into relief 
the rich old chairs, the sculptured 
mantel, the lordly Florentine beauty of 
the sideboard, and the finely wrought 
ceiling. Through narrow gilded doors 


dignified progress is made to a room 


Hewitt PAUL CHALFIN, Architect 


with high walls spaced with rhapsodic 


THE OPEN LOGGIA 


Here the modern note is sounded, the wicker chairs and 


gay cushions mingling with the rich memories of Seven- Here a faintly tinged flood of sunlight 
teenth Century Venice. The airy blues and golds of this 


loggia influence the lights and shadows of a shaded music is gathered ina crystal vase at the cen- 
room beyond, each gaining by the contrast 


painted fantasies in coolest of colors. 


ter of the pattern of the floor, a vase 
which is often seen from across the whole house, burning like a luminary. It is 
composed in a spirit of romance. 

To mount any of the staircases of the house is an adventure. Follow the wide 
marble outdoor stairs from sunlight to sunlight, or slip up a dainty spiral one, with 
its gray green panels of smiling ornament, its shadowed landings and flattish vaults 
inviting the hand to delicate detail. Or pass the gilded gates to the open air break- 
fast room, with its serious, painted ships on the wall often shut away behind white, 
lustrous thin Genoese plushes with faded souvenirs of rose and blue and yellow 
arabesques and so find the real gold of Venice in the red and yellow marbles of the 
floor, the tall scarlet chairs, the shadow-searched black and gold around the mantel 
and the door. From the open side of the room the view is over the great parterres 
of the garden, down endless leagues of green coast into long, tropical sunsets. The 

[ 266 ] 


ASV ete Nee OM ES OF shO- DAY 


descriptions have the color and roman- 
tic inflection of an Arabian Night’s ad- 
venture. They represent Mr. Chal- 
fin’s pulsating enthusiasm for this 
creation of his and are couched in his 
own fervent terms. The color and the 
vistas and the lure of the place are seen 
so well through his eyes that it has 
been a temptation to follow his en- 
thusiasm at some length. Certainly 
there has been no more magnificently 
exotic building in this country, noth- 
ing more consistently lavish, more ex- 
travagantly complete than Mr. Deer- 


ing’s famous plaything in Florida. 


What response one makes to it is, pal- Hewitt PAUL CHALFIN, Architect 


THE NORTH COLONNADE 


The photograph illustrates the pictorial value of the 


In regard to this matter of tem- native coral rock used in the pillars and arches. Though 
this is one of the graver aspects of Mr. Deering’s resi- 


perament, it would be fascinating to dence, it maintains the note of color and buoyancy 


know what national spirit will be predominantly manifested in our future Ameri- 


pably, a matter of temperament. 


can building. At present, as we have said, the Mediterranean is a type exotic 
to an America which is still preponderately of British ancestry. With the con- 
stantly increasing hordes of peasants from Italy, Russia, and Central Europe, with 
the strong Oriental influence to which the large cities are even now subjected, it 
seems incredible that the country should remain representative, in its architecture 
(or its government) of either its British or its Dutch forefathers. It seems in- 
evitable that what we now call the “‘foreign’’ influence should prevail. Already 
we have admitted the primary colors of Scandinavian and Czecho-Slovak pottery 
and linens into our homes. In our slum-suburbs there is many a stucco house, 
swarming with Italians, built by Italians, a structure as alien to the old America 
as it is natural to the peasants who have erected it. Certain of our future mil- 
lionaires will undoubtedly work up from these various races. And then? 
[ 267 J ‘ 


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Photo. by M. E. Hewitt 


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PAUL CHALFIN AND F. BURRALL HOFFMAN, JR., Architects 


THE TEA HOUSE ON MR. JAMES DEERING’S MIAMI ESTATE 


An example of lattice work architecture the origin of which is explained in one of the chapters on gardens. 
This is at the terminal of the South sea arm. A detail to observe with considerable pleasure in the nearer ground 
is the beautifully sculptured old Venetian vase surmounting one of the piers of the balustrade. The little bridge 
spanning the entrance to the South woods canal is a keynote to the playful character of much of the detail 


Photo. by M. E. Hewitt 


THE LILY POND ON MR. JAMES DEERING’S MIAMI ESTATE 


This is seen from another view, or rather, it is suggested, in the illustration shown of the Entrance Loggia. At 
each end of the oval court are marble gateways, This one, at the entrance to the North woods, is protected by 
Neptune and Flora. The whole estate has been skillfully planned for beautiful miniature pictures 


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= 


~ 


CHAPTER TWELVE 


TH Ran GARDE IN Prat Re le OUNaEs 


THE more one considers the subject of gardens, the more one is inclined 
to believe that the first act of the anthropoid ape after descending from the tree 
tops to the solid soil, was to construct a garden; the second to write a book about it. 
While it has been pointed out in earlier chapters that there have been only four 
outstanding codifications of the architectural orders in twenty-five centuries, there 
have been dissertations on the whole and complete theory of gardening in that time 
too numerous to mention. The Roman list, for instance, starts with Cato the 
Censor, at the time of the Punic Wars, and runs through Varro, Columella, and 
the two Plinys to Rutilius Palladius at the time of the downfall of the Roman 
Empire of the West. We are in a position to reconstruct Egyptian, Grecian, and 
Roman gardens almost with more certainty than any other feature of their lives. 
And, apparently, the only outdoor amusement they had beside fighting in the Dark 
Ages was garden design. 

Like anything else with any intellectual content, however, our own theories 
of gardens start in Italy with the Italian Renaissance. All that has been said in 
previous chapters about the manner in which Italian creative skill impressed the 
outlanders from the North in matters of architecture applies with absolutely parallel 
intensity to the matter of gardens. And the streams of influence followed the same 
course, to England, via France. On their way, however, these streams of influence 
were greatly modified by local conditions and by local handlers, so much so that 
the biggest name in connection with the history of gardening is not Italian but 
French, that of André Le Notre, the designer of Vaux Le Vicomte, Chevalier of 
the Order of St. Michael, Counsellor of the King (Louis XIV), Controller General 

[ 284 ] 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


of His Majesty’s Buildings and of the Gardens, Arts and Manufactures of France. 
Louis XIV made him everything that the grand manner permitted a gardener to 
be made; and to this day gardening on a grand scale is usually some modification or 
another of the Le Notre theory. In the following century the English contributed a 
theory of their own to gardening, the so-called landscape school with which are 
associated the names of William Kent, Lancelot Brown, Humphrey Repton, and 
Sir William Chambers. The theory of these gentlemen was that a garden was 
perfect only when it imitated a romantic landscape painting. While England’s 
architecture has probably had no influence upon the Continent, the English land- 
scape school of gardening had an enormous popularity, reaching even into Austria, 
Prussia, and Russia, before its wave of influence subsided. 

There are, of course, two ways of looking at gardens, from the house 
outward or from surrounding nature inward—as an extension of the house archi- 
tecturally into the landscape, or as a breaking of the landscape in waves of more 
and more conscious cultivation upon the house. The garden is, of course, the 
liaison between the house and nature; which of these two elements should be the 
more important constitutes the difference in the two schools of garden design. That 
point of view which considers the garden from its architectural aspect as a pro- 
longation of the main axes of the house itself outside, treated architecturally, with 
considerable stonework and sculpture is represented by the Italian school and 
Le Notre. The opposite attitude which would consider the house as a hillock 
dropped in the midst, so far as such a thing could be managed, of wild and 
untrammeled nature, is the English landscape school. While architectural styles 
have so well taken definite form that they may fairly well be codified into easily 
recognizable separate styles and chapters, gardening of to-day in America is by 
no means so easy to define. It might rather be said to be based upon a knowledge 
of the existence of both these theories of design together with innumerable 
modifications, adaptations, interminglings, and coalescings thereof, together with 
memories of the medieval walled garden which we know best through its English 
Elizabethan form. A discussion of these historic precedents will serve better than 
anything else the purpose of indicating the esthetic principles which animated 
their first producers and the suitability of these principles to modern purposes. 

ee saiy I 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


As the amount of illustrative material available is large the discussion of gardens is 
divided into two parts, this chapter being concerned more with the French and 
English manner and the succeeding chapter with the Italian. 

One of the pleasantest features of modern gardening is the intimate walled 
garden immediately attached to the chief assembling room of a house, the library, 
or sitting room which is most frequently in use. Probably nothing which arises 
to satisfy a perfectly normal human wish for entertainment needs a historic prece- 
dent. We do not eat wheat and meat to-day because the ancient Egyptians did. 
Any garden constructed within rectangular walls in a necessarily limited space, with 
no vistas, must tend to small geometrical beds of symmetrical design with brilliantly 
colored flowers as a relief from the presence of stone or brick. Allowing for differ- 
ences of temperature and climate that description applies to an Egyptian garden 
of the time of Tut-ankh-Amen, the Roman garden of Pliny, and English gardens of 
the period which I, in this book, have referred to as Elizabethan Picturesque. At 
that time domestic architecture was still conceived along military lines where space 
was valuable and where gardens might be admitted to relieve the deadly monotony 
of a garrison commander’s wife, but had to be tucked away in some corner of the 
building in very restricted space. The mental thought back of the walled garden 
is, somewhat in the Robert Louis Stevenson quotation given earlier, furtive, or if 
you prefer a friendlier rendering of the same feeling, intimate. And it is most 
appropriate with the picturesque types of architecture, Elizabethan or Modern. 

This kind of gardening came to its perfection before the other styles of 
architecture which are now more common, those of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth 
Centuries, with their final abandonment of the fortress tradition and their enormous 
expansion of the house architecturally into the surrounding countryside. There 
is one feature of the intimate garden which is perhaps not sufficiently appreciated 
in America to-day. As the intimate garden, in its nearest approach to us, is of 
Gothic origin, it is much more susceptible than any other form for the intensive 
cultivation of highly complicated and bizarre developments. The touch of quaint- 
ness is entirely permissible. The medizval prototype of the walled garden was 
vivid with color in a way our more sober modern eye would probably repudiate. 
The low-lying beds were surrounded by wooden balustrades, gaily painted and gilt, 

L 286 ] 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


with the posts surmounted by heraldic beasts, all violently colored. They also used 
to hang gilt bird cages and little panels of colored glass in sunny spots so that their 
flashing and twinkling would enliven the whole enclosure. They even, though 
this sounds incredible, gilded their fountains and sun dials. 

The progress of garden design in England does not altogether parallel the 
progress of domestic architecture. The formal house was perfected in England 
during the Hanoverian dynasty from 1714 to 1830. The formal garden, based 
on Le Notre, was developed between the Restoration in 1660 and the middle of 
the Eighteenth Century, when it was succeeded in fashionable favor by the purely 
English landscape school. Le Notre’s greatest single monument, the gardens of 
Vaux Le Vicomte, were complete in 1661 and he was invited to England by 
Charles II in 1669 to reconstruct the gardens of Hampton Court. Which leads 
us, properly, to a consideration of the Italian urge in French garden design which 
culminated in Le Notre. 

The first important French gardens to be laid out on recognized Italian lines 
were those that Francis I built at Fontainebleau at the beginning of the Sixteenth 
Century. When Henry IV was resident at that castle he employed Francini, an 
Italian designer, to introduce additional Italian features. When Catherine of Medici 
laid out the garden of the Tuileries in the latter part of the Sixteenth Century 
and when Marie of Medici laid out the Luxembourg some years later, they were 
consciously modeled after the Medici villas at Pratolino and Castello near Florence 
and after the Boboli Gardens adjoining the Pitti Palace. The Luxembourg is con- 
sidered one of the earliest instances in France where a palace and garden were 
considered as one whole design—which is the basis of the whole Italian theory. 
André Le Notre was born in Paris in 1613, the son of one of the gardeners 
employed by Marie of Medici. When Fouquet, the peculating General of Finance 
of Louis XIV, entered upon his ill advised scheme of building a chateau to surprise 
his royal master, Le Notre was the man to whom the designing of the gardens was 
entrusted. As this place, Vaux Le Vicomte, was the first great triumph of the 
Le Notre style, and is even more characteristic of its creator than Versailles (which 
has too much the character of a public building to be comprehended as a unit), 
it is worth while to quote a description of Le Notre’s work which we borrow from 

237 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 
Sir Theodore A. Cook’s “Twenty-five Great Houses of France’’: “Around the build- 


ing spread the unending acres of a formal pleasure ground. Nature, almost as 
far as the eye can reach, has been subdued, corrected, measured by the hand of 
man. Discreet ponds, lined with clipped hedges, make a mirror for the sky in 
calculated spaces. Obedient river gods, with their attendant nymphs, stand ready 
to pour out their never failing urns. Clusters of cherubs hold aloft baskets of never 
fading flowers. ‘The very divinities themselves, in attitudes of cold. and silent 
expectation, seem like stone courtiers in some Versailles Olympus, whose protec- 
tion is no longer needed by the great ones of the earth. One stairway only, guarded 
by carved hounds upon each side, moves upwards into the unknown, and leads 
you to a mysterious glade of woodland where the scattered Termes peep out as 
though afraid to lose their freedom if they beckoned you away. Save for this one 
spot, save for this single artifice of contrast, the ordered landscape is completely 
subjugated to its role of decoration. The distances are but perspectives. The far 
off forest serves but as a background for the chosen scene.” 

Vaux Le Vicomte sent its owner to prison but it made the fortune of Le 
Notre, who went from there to the construction of another gigantic garden scheme 
at Chantilly and later at Versailles. Versailles has for so long been a tourist’s focal 
point, a historical monument of France, that, with the best intentions, it is impos- 
sible to consider it as an example of domestic architecture; and its gardens are so 
parklike in effect upon an American that it is almost impossible to dissociate it 
from its museum aroma. It is only fair to state in this place, however, that 
Versailles, and not Vaux Le Vicomte, is officially considered Le Notre’s greatest 
triumph. As Le Notre has come to be the name of a style rather than of an indi- 
vidual, a grouping and a background for the display of ingenuity, not only of the 
art of garden design but in sculpture and architecture, it is worth while to insert 
here a quotation from H. Inigo Triggs’ monumental “Garden Craft in Europe” 
which analyzes the La Notre motive in the voice of authority: “Besides the immense 
garden schemes at Vaux, Chantilly and Versailles, Le Notre, in the course of his 
long and busy life, laid out gardens over the whole of France and established a 
standard and tradition of the garden design in the grand manner which were 
accepted as a matter of course throughout Europe. Plans sufhcient to fill several 

[ 288 ] 


AEN GCAN. HOMES OF “TO-DAY — 


MRS. GUY FAIRFAX CARY’S GARDEN AT JERICHO, LONG ISLAND 


This is a view from the lawn of the intimate little garden which is of special interest to the owner. At the right 

is the living room porch, a remembrance of the delicate iron porches of the Adam period, which is equipped with 

a large table for handling flowers. At the left are the two little garden loggias which flank the end walk and 
tie the composition together. A view of the interior of this garden appears later in the chapter 


volumes exist of the work he carried out and either he or his pupils were at some 
time or other engaged upon nearly all the important estates in France. Le Notre 
was invited by Charles II to come over in person to lay out Hampton Court garden, 
but although he did not accept the invitation he probably inspired the design, 
which was put into the hands of French gardeners. It is said that he also made 
plans for Greenwich and St. James’s Parks. At any rate, for the next half century, 
his style was paramount in England and his influence spread over the whole of 
Europe. His pupils became court gardeners in Russia, Austria, and Germany 
whilst his methods were even adopted in the Sultan’s gardens at Constantinople.” 
No wonder that his influence is still powerful in America to-day. 

There are three noticeable detail features of the Le Notre style which should 
be mentioned; the use of water, the perfection of trellis work, and the codification 
of the planting in a parterre. The parterre is, of course, the large central flat space 
in any formal garden scheme which is the focal point of the decoration and from 
which all lines of perspective diverge. It is almost invariably arranged so that it 
is sunk below some important walk or assemblage place, a terrace or, at least, a long 

[ 289 ] 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


chamber with large window spaces. The planting therein assumes the form of 
low-lying flower beds of elaborate design, arranged to be seen more or less as a unit 
from some point of advantage on a higher level. For what Le Notre did with the 
flower planting in the parterre we again quote from Triggs: “The parterres of Le 
Notre’s gardens are lighter and more refined than those of the previous century, 
animal forms being omitted and an attempt made to imitate embroidery patterns. 
Parterres were divided into four kinds: Parterres de broderie, in which the boxed 
line imitated embroidery—these were considered the finest; Parterres de comparti- 
ment, which consisted of a combination of scrolls, grass plots, knots and borders 
for flowers; Parterres a l’anglaise, consisting of grass plots all of one piece or cut 
into shapes and surrounded by a border of flowers—this was considered the most 
unattractive kind of parterre; Parterres de piéces coupées, differing from the others 
in that all the parts composing them were in symmetrical shapes of boxwork and 
that they admitted neither grass nor embroidery.” How it echoes the times! 
| It was Le Notre, 
also, who was first, or 
among the first, to raise 
trellis work from a utili- 
- tarian position to an arch- 
itectural: dignity of its 
own. Again quoting from 
Triggs: “At first it was 
used only to train espalier 
branches, then to separate 
the paths of thickets and 
the different parts of the 
vegetable garden; these 


Photos. by M. E. Hewitt 
TENNIS COURT were its principal uses 


On the estate of Mr. and Mrs. Harold Irving Pratt at Glen Cove, Long 2 * 
Island. ‘These views of the turf and clay courts are characteristic ‘of the until the days of Louis 


English and American intrusion of sports into the garden plan XLV whenties ihe oui 4 


ance of Le Notre and J. H. Mansart treillage began to form a distinct and separate 
part of garden craft. The use of treillage became very popular. Summer houses, 
[ 290 J 


ANE RGAINS HOMES OF TO-DAY 


salons, gateways, galleries and, indeed, any architectural feature could be easily imi- 
tated in treillage, and fromits lightness of construction and cheapness it is often more 
suitable than solid stone or stucco.”’ Trellis work on the Le Notre idea is an architec- 
tural feature in itself, such things as the classic temple of love, done under Le 
Notre’s direction at Chantilly, are not intended to be a support for vines. Finally, a 
perfectly Le Notre garden contains elaborate provision for the decorative use of 
water, either still, as mirrors for sky and foliage, or in motion in cascades or fountains 
as a center of attraction in itself. In this one feature the French designers followed 
their Italian originals more closely than in any other. The money that Louis XIV, 
XV and XVI and their courts spent on water works, of the kind they still turn on 
for the tourists at Versailles and St. Cloud, has, so far as we know, never been 
figured; but the gross total would certainly stagger the imagination if it could 
be found out. 

When the garden grand manner of Le Notre was translated to England it 
suffered the same modifi- 
cations, the same casting 
into British molds of 
thought, that the archi- 
_tectural manner of Louis 
XIV received. Generally 
speaking there was a re- 
duction of scale. In 
France the Le Notre 
method was the play- 
thing of royalty; in Eng- 
land it was subject to the 


more limited income of 


TENNIS COURT 


private owners. The im- 
Which is associated in the garden design with the tennis court on the oppo- 


site page. There are no classic prototypes of what provision should be 
portance of stonework made for outdoor sports, These fit attractively into the landscape 


and sculpture in the gen- 

eral scheme became minimized and the importance of the natural background and 

of the yew hedge emphasized. The same sense of livability which so radiates from 
(20 ty 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


the Georgian house is to 
be felt in the English 
adaptation of the Le 
Notre formal garden. In 
England such a garden 
was made for the owner 
to admire; in France for 
Fouquet or Louis XIV to 
give a féte champetre in. 
Fouquet issued six thou- 


sand invitations for his 


own unlucky house warm- 


hoto, by M. E. Hewitt ing. In America the only 
DR. JAMES HENRY LANCASHIRE’S GARDEN 


even passable imitations 

A little walled garden which was hewn out of solid rock at Manchester-by- 
the-Sea. This overlooks Gloucester Harbor, the waters of which can be of the Le Notre method 
seen through the trees ei 


of Le Notre in the original 
manner, are to be found in public parks, though of translations of the English 
adaptations of Le Notre there are numerous examples, usually reduced, however, 
to the parterre alone, with a bare minimum of accessory stonework, sculpture and 
avenues of approach. Our formal garden architecture is used merely to make 
the liaison between the house and a natural landscape. 

The illustrations to this chapter have been selected to show those gardens 
in America in which, generally, the planting is predominant rather than the archi- 
tectural arrangement. ‘The precise place of some of them in the whole scheme of 
garden consciousness, as we have the same to-day in this country, can be better 
appreciated after a reading of the next chapter, where the tentative mingling of 
theories, the combination of modified Le Notre formalism with the English land- 
scape school, plus the sudden revival of the walled garden, are discussed more fully. 
The first illustration is that of Mrs. Guy Fairfax Cary’s personal walled garden 
showing the architectural connection between the garden and the house. Ona later 
page appears an interior view. 

One of the photographs of Mrs. Cary’s garden in this chapter gives a view 

Zo zal 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


looking into the West 
garden from the lawn. 
The living room porch is 
shown at the right. This 
is practically part of the 
intimate little garden 
which is the special inter- 
est of the mistress of the 
house. The living room 
porch itself is a remem- 


brance of the very deli- 


cate iron porches of the 


Adam period, the. chief  ™. E. Hewitt DELANO & ALDRICH, Architects 
MR. OTTO H. KAHN’S GARDEN 


riumph of which lies in 

t P : This is a very charming and informal retreat which is in contrast to the 
* ._ more formal garden treatment shown in other photographs of this Long 

the harmonious and nat Island estate. It is, of course, quite French 


ural connection which it 
achieves between the 
house and the garden. 
With the flower beds at 
each side and the grass 
center of the garden com- 
ing practically to its door- 
way, its union with the 
outdoor world is an ac- 
G.Oufl DP laiecinee Ceniea cit. 
Equipped with a large 
table, the porch answers 
“avs 2%. to the requirements of a_ 
Se? oy 2 &- a _¥| flower room. Here Mrs. 
Gillies HISS & WEEKES, Architects 
THE HENRY R. REA ESTATE 


At Sewickley, Pennsylvania. A very handsome version of the parterre in 
a modified form. It will be noted that it does not belong to any of the : h l ff f 
four parterre styles sponsored by Le Nétre inates the color etiects for 


Lazo =| 


Cary attends to all her 
cutting and here she orig- 


AMERICAN HOMES OF} S02 DAeYy 


the four beds of her garden-between-walls, in which the flowers are changed every 
few weeks and in which she does practically all the work herself. Below this gar- 


den, on the intermediate terrace, is the rose garden, access to which is gained by 


attractive little double circle stairs. Below that again is a very long garden con- 


taining a motive in the shape of an old English casting pool, where in the old days 
they had a platform at one end from which they used to practise casting flies 
for trout. The two garden loggias shown in the illustration flank the end of the 
West garden and serve to tie the composition attractively together. The steps into 


Pi 8d gO 


Courtesy of Town & Country 


CROSS & CROSS, Architects 
A RESIDENCE AT FAR HILLS, NEW JERSEY 
This is the library wing of a very delightful house of the informal type shown in the chapter on the Modern 
Picturesque. Here the setting in the trees emphasizes its Colonial tendency. ‘These trees were all trans- 
planted and the fine old box was moved from a Long Island garden 


[ 294 ] 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


the garden were made from old metropolitan sidewalks, broken up into proper size 
and into interesting shapes. 

Mr. John D. Rockefeller’s garden at Pocantico Hills has been developed on 
broad landscape lines and provides interesting terminal motives embracing hand- 
some views, with sufhicient architectural detail to establish the right of a famous piece 
of ancient sculpture in an appropriate setting to a place on the grounds. It is also 
concerned in establishing a background for modern sculpture, in connection with 
which George Grey Barnard’s colossal ““Adam and Eve’’ is most recently remem- 
bered. Another big and famous garden illustrated in this chapter is ““Blairsden,”’ 
Mr. C. Ledyard Blair’s estate at Peapack, New Jersey. The illustration of the main 
axis looking down from the orangerie to the lake gives the key to the French and 
Italian feeling which has been adapted for American uses, which means, of course, 
that its formality has been modified. 


4 


Photo. by John Wallace Gillies WELLES BOSWORTH, Architect 


MR. JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER’S JAPANESE GARDEN 


One of the most difficult and alien styles to translate into American terms. This has been adroitly simplified to 
suit the broad landscape which is one of the beauties of this estate at Pocantico Hills. A Japanese gardener 
assisted in the details of this garden which is about a hundred yards from the house proper 


[ 295 ] 


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ALVISH S.LLAU “‘d AOUOUD “UW NO NVUHLHA V 


~ 


Photo. by Tebbs DONN BARBER, Architect 


GARDEN TERRACE-OF MRS. WALDRON WILLIAMS’ HOME AT RYE 


The importance of the big tree is again recognized, in a more architectural obeisance to its beauty. The delight 
which the architect has found in the yarious levels that made the building of the house fascinating is reflected 
here, as is the sturdy, handsome stone contour of the residence itself 


JOHN RUSSELL POPE, Architect 


MRS. M. S. BURRILL’S ESTATE AT JERICHO 


This is an excellent illustration on a Long Island estate of the effectiveness of the long walk 

in the French manner. One of the recognized principles of the Le Nétre garden was a series 

of long walks with an ornamental perspective, which is, in the present instance, an architec- 
turally treated water cascade 


we de? fe ‘ tut. s 


s~ * 


Photo. by John Wallace Gillies | CARRERE & HASTINGS, Architects 
MR. C. LEDYARD BLAIR’S ESTATE AT PEAPACK, NEW JERSEY 


Mr. Blair’s estate extends over a thousand acres and is famous for the many points of interest it presents in 

the way of landscape and garden architecture. The long walk illustrated is in the Italian manner. The vista 

is one looking away from Peapack, over an ornamental and practical private lake on the grounds. Mr. James A. 
Greenleaf is the landscape architect 


er 


Photo. by M. E. Hewitt DELANO & ALDRICH, Architects 


THE ROBERT S. BREWSTER ESTATE AT MT. KISCO 


The photograph gives a very good illustration of the classical temple on a hillock of which the English have 
been fond through all their garden periods. The straight walk marks it as derived from the time when they were 
still under the influence of Le Notre. The steps through the woods are another pleasant English feature 


a © s 


we 
5: 


se 
oe 
Ve aS 


B 


Xo be 


WALKER & GILLETTE, Architects 


Photo. by M. E. Hewitt 
MR. WILLIAM R. COE’S HOUSE AT OYSTER BAY 


The long walk here is given a rather simple treatment in character with the feeling of the house, which is in the 
spirit of the early Tudor. There is no architectural emphasis but it is consistent with the ideal which has domi- 
nated all of the landscape; that of keeping the house and grounds intact, as one complete idea 


CHAPTER THIRTEEN 


THE GARDEN—PART TWO 


In the preceding chapter the French theories of garden design to and through 
Le Notre were considered. This French period was preceded by the Italian and 
succeeded by the English, an examination of both of which is in order. After 
nearly a century of unquestioning acceptance of the theories of Le Notre, the 
English suffered one of those violent esthetic reactions which are the delights and 
curiosities of mental life. Every once in so often the conventional, the formal, 
the academic, become distasteful over night, as it were, with volcanic suddenness; 
and a new school is initiated, the chief principles of which are a negation of the 
school which immediately preceded it. |The post-impressionistic, vorticist and 
sphericist movement through which painting went twenty years ago in France and 
this country is exactly typical of what happened in England in garden design about 
the middle of the Eighteenth Century. At that time the cry was, as it invariably 
is in such movements, centered about a return to nature. 

In the case of the English garden reaction of the middle of the Eighteenth 
Century, it also centered around the personality of four men, William Kent, 
Lancelot Brown, Humphrey Repton, and Sir William Chambers. What these four 
men stood for in the matter of garden design is so ably expressed in a chapter 
from Mr. Triggs’ book, “Garden Craft in Europe,” previously mentioned, that 
we will again make a quotation: “As time went on Kent entirely left the formal 
garden and substituted for it the landscape style. ‘Nature abhors a straight line,’ 
was one of his ruling principles and he accordingly set himself to destroy the grand 
avenues left by former generations and to make his paths wind aimlessly about in 


all directions, their destination always concealed by an artfully placed clump of 
[ 306 ] 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


bushes. The ornamental sheets of water were either swept away altogether or 
converted into artificial lakes fed by winding streams and with miniature water- 
falls. The height of absurdity was attained when he planted dead trees in Kensing- 
ton Garden ‘to give the greater air of truth to the scene.” The most popular of all 
the landscape gardeners was Lancelot Brown, Kent’s collaborator and pupil, better 
known as Capability Brown from a habit he had of expatiating on the ‘capabilities’ 
of any place he was asked to improve. His first attempt at designing was in 1750, 
when he constructed an artificial lake at Wakefield Lodge for the Duke of Grafton. 
The formation of artificial lakes was a strong point in his design and one upon which 
he prided himself. “Thames! Thames! thou wilt never forgive me,’ he was over- 
heard to exclaim when lost in admiration of one of his pet schemes. Brown died 
in 1783 and was succeeded by Humphrey Repton who was the first to assume the 
title of landscape gardener, ‘Because,’ he said, “the art can only be advanced and 
perfected by the united powers of the landscape painter and the practical gar- 


ep Mlk 


dener. The last of the quartette was Sir William Chambers, who has earlier been 
quoted as the author of a book on the architectural orders and who was for a time 
in charge of the royal gardens. 

In Sir William Chambers is best expressed the very extraordinary British 
revolt against formalism which found its most perfect fulfillment in the Victorian 
Gothic movement of a later generation. All of the various manifestations of 
Gothicism in England at the end of the Eighteenth and during the first two-thirds 
of the Nineteenth Century had one idea in common; that anything would do in art, 
architecture and literature provided it was not modeled on classic models or Renais- 
sance derivative. The whole movement has been discussed in previous chapters on 
architecture but it took a peculiar individualistic shape in Chambers’ work. In 
1772 he published his “‘A Dissertation on Oriental Gardening” which highly inter- 
ested and excited his contemporaries. The practical upshot of his book and his 
theory was that no English garden felt itself complete unless, dropped somewhere 
casually in the midst of its landscape effects, there was a Chinese pagoda, a 
Mohammedan mosque, or a section of the Moorish Alhambra at Granada. The 
famous pagoda, still standing in Kew Gardens, was erected by him in 1761. If 
anybody wishes to moralize on the futility and vanity of human ideals a complete 

ee Tes 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


example could be obtained by the realization that the great quadrilateral of English 
landscape gardeners regarded the long lines of clearing in woodland or of special 
planting verging from one point, preferably the center of the main parterre, lines 
specifically designed to give reposeful dignity, and an impression of vast space, 
with precisely the same esthetic nausea with which we now regard their own dead 
trees and pagodas. 

A still greater joke, especially on Le Notre, is the fact that towards the end of 
the Eighteenth Century le jardin anglais became as popular in France as Le Sport, 
biftek and rosbif are to-day. Being proselytes, the French became more English 
than the English themselves in the matter of gardening; and erected some curiosi- 
ties which outdid the most bizarre efforts of Sir William Chambers. France, intel- 
lectually, at that time, was just ripe for the pseudo-pastoral, under the influence of 
Rousseau and the back to nature movement to which city civilization is periodically 
subject, a purely literary revulsion, coupled with a fashionable fad, to lead French 
taste into admiration not only of the English theory of gardening but into the 
erection of fictitious rustic groups designed as playhouses for the nobility. Marie 
Antoinette hired an English gardener who enriched Trianon with a pagoda, a 
Chinese aviary, a theater, a temple of Diana, Turkish fountains, and a practicable 
dairy farm. Trianon had been preceded by the erection at Chantilly of a group of 
thatched cottages, externally as nearly like the habitations of peasants as might 
be. “One farmhouse of modest exterior contained a richly decorated salon and 
boudoir and a dining hall with ceiling painted to represent foliage that one might 
fancy oneself in a dense forest; other thatched cottages were devoted to the billiard 
room, library, etc.”’ 

As the apex of calculated triviality to which the English type of landscape 
gardening may logically descend, Mr. Triggs quotes from a project, published in 
1784, describing a prospective garden of the time: “Like the Chinese gardens its 
perfection was to consist in the number and diversity of its scenes and in the artful 
combination of their parts, planned to suit every mood of the owner. Arriving by 
the grand avenue we find the chateau placed in the midst of the garden, with a path 
leading to the village, a tiny Gothic ruined chapel and a group of cottages, a pyra- 
mid overlooking a pond, a fishing lodge, dairy and sheepfold. Hard by is an Italian 

L 308 ] 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


vineyard overlooked by a temple appropriately dedicated to Bacchus; as a great 
contrast the visitor passed from this joyous spot to one more serious, the aisle of 
tombs, with monuments dedicated to the great dead of all times, virtuous citizens, 
dead or even living friends; this scene, we are told, would always evoke emotion 

. then on to the Dutch garden, formally laid out with tiny canals and a temple 
of Venus, decorated with shells and coloured spar in the usual Dutch manner. This 
garden was to be surrounded by roses and to be as gay as possible in order to form 
the greater contrast to the next scene which was to represent a fearsome desert and 
ought not only to offer a spectacle of sterility but one which by means of ruined 
habitations, the débris of burnt houses, trees overturned by the tempest and caverns 
inhabited by monsters, is calculated to inspire sadness. It is suggested that the 
effect might be still further heightened by a volcano artfully constructed in imita- 
tion of Vesuvius, emitting smoke by means of a coal fire . . . each elevation of 
the house was treated in a different style to suit the garden it overlooked.”” The 
preceding is so absurd that did it not have the authority of quotation from the 
work of one occupying as recognized a position of garden literature as Mr. Triggs 
it would be almost impossible to admit its existence. 

The reductio ad absurdum of the English landscape school is a simple enough 
matter; the results are obviously humorous. But practically all of our public 
parks of to-day are constructed along lines which Lancelot Brown would himself 
have approved. Central Park in New York, with its curving paths leading to ficti- 
tiously picturesque summer houses, is a perfect example of the English landscape 
garden school of design. And the general theories of the landscape school still 
control the outline of garden design for private owners in this country, though 
modified, at least so we hope and feel, in the general interest of simplicity. There 
is still, speaking by and large, the same dislike of straight lines, of axial avenues in 
the garden, which we inherit from the landscape school. For the feverish desire to 
inflict every square yard of soil with some romantic object of attraction, Chinese, 
Turkish, quasi-classic or romantic, we have substituted a willingness for expanses 
of lawn space and for plantings of trees more or less in homogeneous clumps, instead 
of the collection of specimen trees which was one of the by-products of the landscape 
school. With this modified landscape effect has been fused a treatment near the 

[ 309 ] 


AMERICAN, HOMES OF >. TLOSDAY 


house along the English version of Le 
Notre, plus the use of walled and sunken 
gardens in some attractive association 
with the architecture of the house. While 
the distinction between various architec- 
tural styles is sufficiently rigid to become 
a matter of codification and of easy dis- 
tinction, the whole art of garden design 
has remained much more fluid. A house 
is a rather solemn undertaking, requires 
a great deal of thought and preliminary 


planning; conventions are likely to be 


accepted for fear of permanent disaster 
MELLOR, MBIGS & HOWE, Architects if they are too violently departed from. 


A GAZEBO In a garden it is much simpler to change 


In the garden of Mr. R. T. McCracken at German- ‘ ; ; 
town, Pennsylvania. A contribution to American a detail here, insert a statue there, incor- 


garden design from the Dutch school 

porate a trick first seen in France or in 
Italy, as so many of the English did in the Eighteenth Century, that the distinction 
between separate styles of gardens seems to blur. The most perfect composite of 
all, since the beginning of garden design, is quite naturally to be seen to-day in 
our own country. As esthetic approval is the codified opinion of those held by 
common consent to be in the best position to occupy the rights of an arbiter ele- 
gantiarum, it is obvious that if the opinion of these persons has not become codified 
there is no formula which may be offered as a slide rule for taste. 

The best that can be offered in a book such as the present one, dealing with 
the esthetics of the whole situation, is to point out the connotations back of each 
of the more easily recognizable units in the landscape garden composite of to-day 
and leave it to the owner’s good taste to decide which aspect of the composite seems 
fitting to him or to her to emphasize. The Le Notre school, as typifying the whole 
formal attitude towards gardening, is unquestionably the best type of garden for 
a large country place in the French manner and its perfect adaptability to the style 
is completely to be sensed in the illustrations of the Otto H. Kahn house shown 

[ 310 | 


AMERICAN HOMES OF=TO-DAY 


elsewhere. A similar garden treatment to a house in the picturesque manner, either 
Elizabethan or modern, such as the W. R. Coe place at Oyster Bay, or the Sabin 
place at Southampton, would be startlingly incongruous. The Elizabethan Pictur- 
esque building calls for a mingling of the formal and naturalistic methods on a 
more friendly and personal scale, the Modern Picturesque for a still further accen- 
tuation of the intimate note. The Colonial and English models are probably most 
appropriately placed when seen across a much simplified English landscape effect 
with formal touches and intimate gardens, English in detail, impinging upon the 
house walls. Beyond such a mild laying down of the law it is, in reason, impossi- 
ble to go. In so far as it is possible in a non-technical work, and by one who has 
not spent a lifetime in a study of the subject, the two main schools, the formal and 


the naturalistic, that which defines the garden as an extension of the architecture 


Photos. by Gillies 


THE LONG WALK DOWN TO THE HUDSON RIVER ON MR. UNTERMYER’S ESTATE 


These two views illustrate the value of the long walk The vista terminates in a circular landing enclosed 
ending in a classic form. This vista leads down from by a Greek balustrade adorned with two huge antique 
an upper terrace for many hundreds of feet Cippolino columns imported by Stanford White 


exe EG 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


of the house and that which considers 
it purely as an amelioration of nature, 
have been indicated and their poten- 
tialities characterized. 

There still remains to be considered 
the Italian garden. In the discussion 
of architecture it was pointed out that 
we had progressed to the point where 
we had become dissatisfied with accept- 
ing our Italian inspiration through Eng- 
land, via France, and had returned di- 
rectly to Italy for the source of some of 


our most attactive and, so far as we are 


concerned locally, newest ideas in archi- 


MR. J. E. ALDRED’S ESTATE tecture. Precisely this same thing has 


Detail of the footpath gate observed in the entrance % : 
composition on the opposite page. Gate designed by happened recently In garden design. It 


ieee imate nae wre so happens that one of the most outstand- 
ing garden creations of recent years, that on the estate of Charles M. Schwab at 
Loretto, Pennsylvania, is so thoroughly Italian Renaissance in inspiration and in 
physical manifestation that it might very well have been built for one of the Medici 
to whom Italy owes so many of her architectural and artistic monuments. 

Italy is the only country in which the garden of a consciously planned 
country gentleman’s estate was designed as an integral part of the whole scheme by 
the architect of the house itself. As a matter of fact one might almost say that the 
architect planned the house to suit the gardens which the site and wealth of the 
owner permitted him to build. The outstanding villas of Italy were chiefly erected 
during the concomitant intellectual activity and acquisition of wealth which marked 
the early days of the Italian Renaissance. Their erection is chiefly centered in the 
big families of Italy who, for one reason or another, acquired political power at 
that era with the consequent economic means to erect desirable country places. As 
the Medici family exhibit in their various members the more magnificent aspects of 
this period they are usually taken as typical. First and last they put up eleven 

3125] 


75! 


SREP, 


TWO EXAMPLES OF IRON GATEWAYS IN AMERICA 


Above is the main entrance of Mr. Horatio G. Lloyd at Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania. Wilson, Eyre & McIlvaine 

are the architects. Below is the main entrance gate of Mr. J. E. Aldred’s residence at Locust Valley. Hen 

W. Rowe is the architect. These gateways are examples of the well known work of Mr. Samuel Yellin of Phila- 
delphia, who has been awarded gold medals by various societies for his achievement 


AMERICAN HOMES 


aE task Rai ONS 


DELANO & A DRICH, Mremiedes 
RESIDENCE OF MR. BERTRAM G. WORK 


A very good pictorial representation of what is supposed to be one of the 
greatest charms of the pergola, the light and shade resulting in attractive 
patterns on the tiled floor 


Ptah s 
TROWBRIDGE & ACKERMAN, Architects 
MR. TRUMAN H. NEWBERRY’S HOME 
A very substantially built pergola in a severe classical design which is 


obviously arranged as an outdoor sitting room. The photograph shows how 
architectural a pergola can be 


[ 314 ] 


OF (DOD Any 


villas in the neighbor- 
hood of Florence. As 
the sites were generally 
in the foothills of the 
mountains with which 
Italy is ridged and bor- 
dered, the villas were 
placed on a hillside; and 
an abundant supply of 
water, some swiftly flow- 
ing mountain stream or 
streams, was immediate- 
Both the 


climate and the lack of a 


ly available. 


rich soil prevented the 
development of flower 
beds in the manner 
possible in England or 
America. The greenery 
was supplied largely by 
trees and by potted 
plants and the main dec- 
orative principle lay in 
the architectural expan- 
sion of the house down 
the hillside in a series 
of stairways and balus- 
trades intermingling 
with and _ bordering 
water, which, owing to 
the flow developed by 
the drop of the hill, was 


AMIE REGAN HOMES OF TO, DAY 


rapid enough to add a remarkable anima- 
tion to the picture. The first essential to 
a good Italian garden is a hillside; the 
second a plentiful supply of water. At 
the juncture of the house and the water 
course were developed the great architec- 
tural parterres which the French were to 
enlarge and to thrust out into a setting 
of vegetation rather than retain within 
stone in the Italian manner. Being pa- 


trons of art, with a keen, intelligent ap- 


preciation and interest in the enrichment 


ERG e FESS tend 
REGINALD D. JOHNSON, Architect 


“THE BACCHANTE” 


The famous bronze by Frederick MacMonnies designed 

originally for the courtyard of the Boston Public 

Library in a similar setting on the estate of Mr. J. P. 
Jefferson at Montecito, California 


ae a 


“THE SPIRIT OF THE WOODS” 


This fine bronze by Edward McCartan shows an es- 

sentially modern way of placing sculpture in the 

garden. It is on the estate of Mr. and Mrs. Harold 
Irving Pratt at Glen Cove, Long Island 


of their surroundings by art objects, the 
gardens of the Italian villas were adorned 
with sculpture in bronze and marble. 
Some of the finest sculpture work of the 
Renaissance was originally made to dec- 
orate an Italian garden. The gardens of 
the Vatican were the work largely of 
Bramante, the architect of St. Peter’s, 
and Raphael, San Gallo and Peruzzi. 
Each have their villa gardens assigned to 
them. In a way an Italian villa garden 


was an outdoor gallery of sculpture. 


L 315 ] 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


It is exactly in the Medician spirit 
that Mr. Charles M. Schwab’s gardens at 


Loretto, Pennsylvania, have been devel- 


oped. Mr. Schwab has proved himself a 
patron of the arts in the genuine spirit of 
the phrase. He has not been afraid to 
give American sculptors a chance to 
prove their right to a place in the Ameri- 
can garden. Others are beginning to fol- 
low suit. It is a move that is more valu- 
able than any other to the encouragement 
of the production of fine sculpture in this 
country. In Mr. Schwab’s garden, as is 
seen in the illustrations, are several exam- 
ples of the neo-archaic in- 
fluence on modern sculp- 
ture as expressed through 
the superb craftsmanship 
of Paul Manship. I have 
never yet met the sculptor 
who would deny Man- 
ship’s mastery of his craft. 
Manship, more than any- 
one else in this country, 
has classic imagination. 
He has, of course, many 
followers, of which the 
most talented is John 
Gregory. Mr. Schwab is 


SCULPTURE IN THE GARDEN fortunate in having one of 


The illustrations represent two modern schools. The little figure above illus- 2 
trates what might be called the baby school. The very important bronze by Mr. Gregory S most com- 
John Gregory below is an excellent example of the extreme reverence with 1 ka : 

which we are treating the classic legend plete works in his ever- 


L 316 | 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


green court. This is the Bronze Group of 
Orpheus shown in a planting of boxwood, 
American Arborvite, and native white 


Here 


again is an example of the classic legend, 


pine in one of our illustrations. 


treated with great reverence, but enliv- 
ened by the play of modern imagination. 
The animal figure, instinct with feeling, 
thrilling all over in response to the irre- 
sistible music, is distinctly modern and 
personal. 


Mr. Gregory is an English- 


man, born in London, but is justly called 


American as his art has matured in this 


ARMILLARY SPHERE SUNDIAL 


On Mr. Schwab’s estate. Paul Manship’s Hercules, 
with the conventional attributes of lion skin and club, 
is a feature of the blue flower garden . 


“THE HUNTER” 


By Paul Manship. A bronze which terminates the 
allée by the arborvite, east of the formal garden on 
Mr, Schwab’s estate 


country. If Mario Korbel is not already 
represented on Mr. Schwab’s estate he 
undoubtedly will be. 
Czecho-Slovakian artist who is definitely 


At the 


present time he has a very special com- 


He is a young 
a part of American sculpture. 


mission, to provide the sculpture for the 
estate of Mr. George G. Booth near 
Detroit, which he has helped to plan 
as a background for art. Edward Mc- 
Cartan, one of our most purely Amer- 
ican sculptors, deserves a place, if he 


has not one already, in Mr. Schwab’s 


[ 317 ] 


A VUE Rib C ANS FROME Ss Oil Om DEY 


garden. His “Nymph and Faun,” “Diana,” and “Girl with Goat” suite are as 
fine examples of the Clodion type, in bronze, as anything in this country. 
Sculpture is so definitely a part of Mr. Schwab’s estate at Loretto that this digression 
is justifiable. And the author has a great affection for the sculptors who are pro- 
ducing genuine art in the United States. 

The art in the garden planning itself lies a great deal in the fact that it has 
been designed with a thorough feeling for the value of its American characteristics 
while it reflects, in its most formal and architectural aspects, the famous gardens of 
the Continent. According to Robert Imlay, writing on the Schwab gardens for 
The Architectural Record, Loretto was founded in the last years of the Eighteenth 
Century by a Jesuit minister who dedicated a church there. Fr. Gallitzin was a 
Russian nobleman who came to this country to enter the ranks of the Society of 


Jesus and, at the order of Bishop Carroll of Baltimore, went into Western Pennsyl- 


GARDEN FIGURES BY GERTRUDE VANDERBILT WHITNEY 


These figures were shown in Mrs. Whitney’s retrospective exhibition at the Wildenstein Galleries and are now in 

the garden of her studio at Eight West Eighth Street. Mrs. Whitney’s best known recent work is the statue of 

“Buffalo Bill” near the Wyoming entrance to Yellowstone Park, which received the award of honor at the 
Spring Salon in Paris in 1924 


| 818 ] 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


vania. Loretto was on the edge of pioneer America, stretching westward from the 
Appalachians. In Colonial times the route of the French travelers to Canada was 
not far West of it. “Such was the romantic birth of Loretto, which remains, to-day, 
a tiny, undisturbed, unambitious American village, of Catholic atmosphere and 
un-English ancestry. It is thus unique, though had it not been the birthplace of 
Mr. Schwab, it would no doubt have continued to slumber unvexed by any undue 
attention from the outside world.” 

The entrance to Mr. Schwab’s estate is practically made through the village 
cross road, with its tall cross. This makes the liaison. The estate itself consists of 
seven hundred acres, largely old farmland, woods and pasture. The farm groups 
are shown in another chapter. In these, as in other details, Messrs. Murphy and 
Dana codperated with Mr. Leavitt, the landscape engineer. The water feature 
illustrated in this chapter is designed down the slope from the house terrace to the 
large garden. The Paul Manship Griffons are the sculptured ornaments of the 
pedestals at the lower basin of the cascade. Quoting Mr. Imlay: “One may gain 
an idea of the size of the whole from the following dimensions: The distance from 
the great terrace to the garden is 247 feet, the drop in level being fifty feet in this 
distance. The main garden is 190 feet wide and 600 feet long. The width of the 
lily pools which center across the garden is twelve feet. The highway is ten feet 
or more below the garden. The design, therefore, derives much character from 
these decisive changes in level.”’ 

Below the South Terrace is a swimming pool, which is part of the waterway 
just described. Then follow the cascade, through the bosquet of white pines with 
the Griffon basin as a midway feature, terminating finally in the lily pools which lead, 
through the gardens, to the Crenier Fish Fountain. The gardens, planned as a 
horizontal oblong with semi-circular pergolas at the east and west, in which pendant 
tea houses are incorporated, are divided into the Blue, Pink, Iris and White Garden 
with the rose gardens, bordered with turf walks, directly at the sides of the lily pool. 
In this garden will be found some of the sculpture in the handsome setting illus- 
trated. The general effect of the scheme from the house is that of an open central 
motive well framed in indigenous trees. It is a delightful combination of the monu- 
mental and the naturalistic. 

eat 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


Mr. George G. Booth’s estate near Detroit, already referred to in a preceding 
paragraph, will, when it is completed, be a work worth leaving as a memorial to 
the city. I do not know whether that is Mr. Booth’s intention but the serious- 
ness of his enterprise seems to warrant such a conjecture. The garden is not 
being developed as a pleasant place where sculpture merely has a pretty part. 
As has been stated, it is being planned as a dignified and fitting background for 
serious sculpture work. A special Terrace of the Arts will have important fig- 
ures representing the various arts. Other sculpture will be designed into back- 
grounds of architectural significance. All of this has been given to Mario Korbel 
to plan and execute. Mr. Korbel has already completed certain of the figures, but 
unfortunately the garden has not progressed sufficiently at the time of writing to 
be represented in this book. Mr. Korbel is also designing figures for Mr. Nicholas 
F. Brady’s garden on his estate near Roslyn. For these sculptures Mr. Korbel 
has sought various inspirations. He has worked on models in Prague, London, 
Paris, and New York. He realizes that, in Mr. Booth’s handsome scheme, he has 
an opportunity that few modern sculptors are granted. And he is taking it seri- 
ously. An English sculptor, F. Lynn Jenkins, is also designing garden statuary 
for the E. T. Stotesbury estate near Philadelphia. 

In closing this chapter on Gardens, it is as well to state that the omission of 


any quotation from Bacon is quite intentional. 


L 320 ] 


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WELLES BOSWORTH, Architect 


ANTIQUE SCULPTURE IN MR. ROCKEFELLER’S GARDEN 


The beautiful little classic temple enshrines the Montalvo or Altoviti Venus from Florence acquired some years 
ago by Mr. Rockefeller. This is considered by experts to be the work of a Greek sculptor of the Roman age. It 
has been rubbed down and polished until it has acquired an unusual brown tone 


Photo. by John Wallace Gillies CHARLES WELLFORD LEAVITT, Landscape Engineer 


MR. CHARLES M, SCHWAB’S ESTATE AT LORETTO, PENNSYLVANIA 


A view of the double stairway which descends each side of the cascade into the rose garden. The photograph 
gives an excellent idea of the combination of the monumental and naturalistic treatment of the estate. In the 
middle distance is noted the bosquet of white pines each side of the cascade 


Mee Sa 


Photos. by John Wallace Gillies CHARLES WELLFORD LEAVITT, Landscape Engineer 


DETAILS OF THE GARDEN DEVELOPMENT OF MR. SCHWAB’S ESTATE 


At the top is illustrated the terminal of the long lily pond scheme seen below and on the opposite page. This is 
the Fish Fountain by Henri Crenier, surrounded by limestone caryatides by the same sculptor, the latter obviously 
inspired by the terminal figures bearing vases at the Villa Farnese at Caprarola near Viterbo, Italy 


te fat y 


Wallace Gillies CHARLES WELLFORD LEAVITT, 


THE EAST FOUNTAIN ON THE CHARLES M. SCHWAB ESTATE 


Photos. by John 


Landscape Engineer 


Bronze figure by Paul Manship which is very attractively placed in a central position just below the East Ter- 

race of the residence. The feeling that the figure is part of the architectural consideration of the scheme is the 

antithesis of the informal situation of Mr. McCartan’s fisure on its naturalistic base in its unceremonious setting 
on the Harold Irving Pratt estate 


& 


MURPHY & DANA, Architects CHARLES WELLFORD LEAVITT, Landscape Engineer 


ANOTHER DETAIL OF THE CHARLES M. SCHWAB GARDEN 


“Hercules Supporting the World,” the sundial seen in detail in an earlier illustration is shown in the background 

against a wall which is thoroughly in keeping with the Italian spirit in that it almost ostentatiously intrudes 

stonework and bulk into the garden. Attention should be given to the bland modeling of the fountain in the 
middle ground of the picture 


Photo. by John Wallace Gillies CROSS & CROSS, Architects 


GARDEN DETAIL OF THE CHARLES H. SABIN COUNTRY PLACE 


A number of views of the Sabin summer home at Southampton have been shown because of their admirable pic- 
turesque quality. A consideration of these shows the logical association which this little walled garden has with 
the whole theme. The sculptural vases of floral motive are happily in scale and place in their present connection 


May 


Photo. by John Wallace Gillies CARRERE & HASTINGS, Architects 


THE C. LEDYARD BLAIR ESTATE AT PEAPACK, NEW JERSEY 


The illustration shows the perfect adaptation here of the French-Italian water motive, which resembles the Allée 
D’Eau at St. Cloud. It is distinctly French in the treatment of the trees and in the general background. Le 
Notre himself probably never did anything more effective. James L. Greenleaf is the landscape architect 


Photos. by John Wallace Gillies WELLES BOSWORTH, Architect 


MR. SAMUEL UNTERMYER’S ESTATE AT YONKERS 


This view and that on the opposite page of the gardens of “Greystone” give an excellent idea of the ornamental 

use of water which has obviously been inspired by the gardens of the Italian Renaissance and yet has been exe- 

cuted with the classic simplicity utterly alien to the Italian Renaissance mind. The two views are given here to 
illustrate the treatment of both sides of the pool 


¢ - ee 


CHARLES WELLFORD LEAVITT, Landscape Engineer 


WELLES BOSWORTH, Architect 
MR. SAMUEL UNTERMYER’S ESTATE AT YONKERS 


Another view of the circular colonnade, showing the swimming pool. 
upper and lower terrace of the garden. 


This marble pavilion stands between the 
The floor is a classic design in green, yellow and gray marbles. The 
lions’ heads which spout water into the pool are by Frederick J. Roth. A band of mosaic in wave design con- 


nects the base of the pavilion colorfully with the pool, the bottom of which is brilliant with sea animals in mosaic 


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CHAPTER FOURTEEN 


FARM GROUPS AND INCIDENTAL BUILDINGS 


Ar TER the great house, the outbuildings. Nowadays these tend more and 
more to be a garage and a superintendent’s cottage. And for the architectural 
treatment of these the rule is very simple—a development in a minor key of the 
chords struck in the main building. In this chapter, for example, we show such 
buildings in the Mediterranean, the neo-classic French, the French manorial, and 
the Modern Picturesque methods, all buildings in exact harmony to their main 
structures. They are included here rather to round out the text than because of 
any special architectural or esthetic reasons. The only one about which anything in 
particular may be said is the garage to the Sabin place at Southampton through 
which the entrance road to the main house runs and which, in itself, is a very 
striking and effective bit of modern picturesque architecture. 

When we enter the question of farm groups, however, the situation is much 
more complicated. Nothing marks more clearly the difference between the Seven- 
teenth and Eighteenth Centuries and the Twentieth than the disappearance of the 
necessity for what amounted to a small village around and dependent upon every 
big country mansion. Practically all the food supplies were raised locally and 
were handled from birth until their appearance upon the table as an omelette, a 
pancake, a sausage, or a roast, by people who were the servants of the great house, 
and in appropriate buildings for very special tasks. Every house of sorts had its 
stables, its barns, its piggeries, its sheepfold, its hen run, its smoke houses, its 
enormous storage spaces for the offspring of these industries, and even its brew 
houses. That was before the birth of modern transportation methods and the 
development of the package system. ‘Telephoning in the morning to the nearest 
grocer for the evening’s dinner necessities is a comparatively recent innovation. 

L 336 ] 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


The practical necessity for surrounding a big mansion with dependent cottages 
and outbuildings is as nonexistent now as the feudal grouping of small houses under 
the protecting walls of a castle. When one undertakes nowadays to revive this 
system it is done in the light of a conscious and very expensive luxury. They tell a 
story of Paderewski years ago in Poland, long before the war, and in a country 
where farm labor, by comparison with American cost, is negligible, which illus- 
trates the point in question. Wishing to do something very nice for a visiting 
opera singer, he asked her whether she would rather have a bunch of asparagus 
grown on his estate or a diamond necklace, adding that they both cost about the 
same. A real number one yacht is considered about the most expensive hobby in 
which a rich man can indulge. That is a great popular mistake. One could sup- 
port comfortably several yachts out of what it costs to be a gentleman farmer in the 
grand manner. 

In spite of all these handicaps there are several very notable farm develop- 
ments constructed in recent years of which we show some of the most outstanding 
in the following illustrations. One of the best known is undoubtedly ‘Surprise 
Valley Farm’ on the Arthur Curtiss James estate at Newport, Rhode Island. The 
James place, while only a mile and a half from the center of Newport, comprises 
a hundred and twenty-five acres, mostly Rhode Island granite. In 1915 Mr. 
James, who is the owner of a prize herd of Guernsey cattle, decided to get rid of his 
New Jersey farm and bring the Guernseys to Newport. The moving was seized 
upon by Mr. James as the reason for erecting what is to-day not only one of the 
great show spots of Newport but one of the most unusual groups of farm buildings 
in America. It was approached in precisely the right mood. Both the spirit of 
the undertaking and the background were weighed and considered. It was not a 
house that was to be put up, something which had become as conventionalized as 
the clothes one may wear upon any given occasion, but it was, in essence, a village 
that was to be created, not for serious economic purposes but for recreation and 
amusement. In doing a thing like this both owners and architects can swim out 
beyond the guide ropes and disport themselves as their fancy wills. In this par- 
ticular case, led, perhaps, by the character of the native stone and the peculiar 
resemblance, if one let oneself down into the little gullies of the James’ estate, to 

ieSSirel 


AMERICAN HOMIES OF TOs DeAgy 


the secluded rocky pastures of the Swiss mountains, the general scheme of a Swiss 
Village, centering around a miniature common, was decided upon. 

The word Swiss needs a little explanation. Situated where four of the chief 
European nations, France, Italy, Austria, and Germany, converge, there are as 
many different Switzerlands as there are surrounding peoples. There is French 
Switzerland, German Switzerland, the Tyrol or Austrian Switzerland, and the Italian 
Switzerland—not in nationality, but in general culture, habits of living, and archi- 
tecture. Although the Swiss are a perfectly united nation, there is no Swiss lan- 
guage and the conductors on the through expresses warn you to get aboard in 
three languages, French, German, and Italian. When we ordinarily speak of 
Switzerland we mean Teutonic Switzerland, the Switzerland of Oberammergau, of 
wood carving and yodeling, and of Swiss chalets, that most Japanese of all Euro- 
pean architecture. A thing of over-ornamented, top-heavy wood which makes one 
think irresistibly of picture postcards and cuckoo clocks. There is another Switz- 
erland of totally different character lying on the Italian side of the Alps, where 
the buildings look as if they had been hewn out of granite and resemble nothing 
so much as a series of two-fisted, medieval fortresses grouped casually together for 
protection against attack. The buildings are constructed crudely, heavily, and 
very solidly of roughly cut rock taken from the neighboring hillside. Those Swiss 
who do not live upon the tourist, or wood-carving, derive their living from cattle and 
their by-products, and these Italo-Swiss buildings have for centuries been molded 
to house cattle and their attendant families. So that there has developed that 
appropriateness of tool for purposes for which it is used, which cannot help but 
come in the course of centuries. It was a touch of happy inspiration which led 
Mr. James and his architects to develop the farm along Italo-Swiss models. The 
first move was the blasting out of a level spot in the middle of Mr. James’ one hun- 
dred and twenty-five acres—which was then still largely rocky waste. This devel- 
oped a flat, sunken open court of about sufficient size to contain, say, four tennis 
courts and supplied the stone for the buildings erected around it. The focal point 
is the Guernseys’ home, the cow barn with a space for twenty-four cows, a bull pen, 
and the necessary storage allowance for feed and hay. This stands on one side of 
a rocky bridge underneath which one half expects to see a tumbling Alpine stream, 

[ 338 ] 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


Photo. © by 


E. Hewitt 
ESTATE OF MR. JAMES DEERING AT MIAMI 


These are the superintendent’s quarters which recall somewhat the type of farmhouse that is seen in Northern 

Italy, in connection with all the palaces of Florence. It will be noted by a reference to the views of the house 

seen elsewhere in the book that the construction is similar to that of the main residence. The central open 
loggia is particularly charming. The color of the house is pale violet. The awnings are lavender and yellow 


rather than the peaceful motor roadway which is actually there. On the other end 
of the bridge is a carpenter shop constructed in very convincing facsimile of a 
Fourteenth Century watch tower and block house. Around the other side of this 
artificial amphitheater are the various necessary buildings for superintendents, 
farmers, and all the other purposes of a thoroughly going and entirely self-con- 
tained farm, with a dairy, hennery and piggery. The photographs we give look 
towards the cow barn, the bridge, and the carpenter shop. The other buildings 
are behind the photographer. 

The question of detail has been very carefully considered. In the picture 
focusing upon the bridge it will be noted that the driveway circling the sunken 
center plot, is rimmed with protecting upright stones in the true Alpine manner. 
Quite in the play spirit in which this colony was erected, the chief buildings have 
been identified by serio-comic wooden bas-reliefs in high colors. Again in the play 
spirit is the subnormal scale to which it has all been kept; assuming, say, that the 
average adult male is five feet, eight inches in height, this whole production has 
been staged as if he were about a foot less. The whole general effect has been so 
adroitly planned that when one stands in the middle of the sunken court and looks 
at the surrounding buildings and the broken ledges left by the blasting, one gets a 

(2339) 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


bce aietieg 


Photo. by M. E. Hewitt HORACE TRUMBAUER, Architect 


GARAGE ON THE ESTATE OF MRS. HAMILTON RICE AT NEWPORT 


The architect has, in this building, succeeded in doing a very difficult thing. He has translated that modern 

necessity, the garage, into a formally beautiful work which is in character with the architectural aristocracy of 

the residence itself. The situation on a terrace gives an interesting locational emphasis. The trellis work, as is 
shown in the garden chapters, is typically French. It is all very consistent 


definite impression of being isolated, and it is very difficult to realize that by walk- 
ing to comparatively few yards from where one stands, one can see the unmistak- 
able modernity of Newport all about one. “Surprise Valley Farm’’ is distinctly 
happy nomenclature. The place is all of that. If it were built for the owner to 
live in, rather than as an expression of a play mood, it would be judged by very 
different and much harsher standards. As it is, even to one irrevocably wedded to 
the Adam, it has a certain element of undeniable theatrical effectiveness 
which is as exhilarating as any masquerade. It certainly is unique in American 
architecture. 

The more usual manner in which to develop farm groups is along the models 
established in France and in England and we show an example of each manner in 
the illustrations to this chapter—the English manner in the farm group of the 
Schwab estate at Loretto, just mentioned in the previous chapter, the French in the 
Fahnestock place at Coldspring. As absolutely up to date as these farm groups 
are, in both instances, in neither have the architects been so absorbed in modern 

[ 340 ] 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


sanitation and modern equipment that they have lost the romantic viewpoint. 
The Fahnestock group, which was originally built for the late Major Clarence 
Fahnestock, Dr. Ernest Fahnestock’s brother, has, as is stated in one of the cap- 
tions, been designed as an English work, along models originating in Normandy, 
in the sweeping gables and in certain other smart details. In arriving at the happy 
conclusion observed in the illustration, the architect, the late Lewis Colt Albro, has 
very legitimately taken what are usually considered the ugly requirements of a farm 
and made them an integral feature of the design. This is observed most particu- 
larly in the silo, which has lent itself most courteously to a tower treatment, proving 
its right to architectural acknowledgment from the beginning. As will be noted in 
the illustration it has been boldly made a central feature and is decidedly enter- 
taining in its relation to the various gables. In another instance, where a second 
silo for a second unit of cows had to exist, it was found advisable to seclude it in 
a gable rather than to include another tower in the composition. 

The buildings on Dr. Fahnestock’s estate are all constructed of stone found on 


the property, covered by a very rough stucco. The corner quoins and all the open- 


Photo. by M. E. Hewitt DELANO & ALDRICH, Architects 


STABLE GROUP ON MR. OTTO H. KAHN’S ESTATE AT COLD SPRING HARBOR 


As the main house has been developed along the lines of a French manor house, this group is practically an en- 
largement of what the stables of a French farmhouse might be. There is the same practical, frank, open treat- 
ment of a large yard, with no ornamental detail. The whole thing has been conceived in the utmost simplicity 


[ 341 ] 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


Photo. by John Wallace Gillies CROSS & CROSS, Architects 
THE CHARLES H. SABIN GARAGE GROUP AT SOUTHAMPTON 


The illustration gives an excellent idea of the plan of the Sabin estate. The ideal, as has been noted in the 

photographs published of the residence, has been to settle the house well in a hollow and to emphasize the 

charm of driving down to it. The drive is over a ridge, then down through the garage, which serves as a 
gate lodge, into the forecourt 


ings of the buildings are of slightly dressed stone, which has great variety in the 
coloring. This, as will be seen in the illustration, is left in random lengths. The 
roofs are of an extra quality of slate, in variegated greens and purples, laid in ran- 
dom courses, with varied exposure to the weather. In the photograph the gable at 
the left marks the beginning of a wing housing one of the two units for sixteen 
cows each. The building with the attractive weather vane houses the large wagon 
room with a spacious hay loft above. On one side of this is the horse stable wing; 
on the other the first unit for sixteen cows. Another very charming feature of 
the group is the pictorial wind mill, equipped with the finest of modern wheels, 
which pumps water from an artesian well into a huge reservoir on a nearby moun- 
tain overlooking the farm building group. The view illustrated gives an excellent 
idea of what might be called the lilt of the whole idea behind the composition, the 
charm of line, the advantage taken of practical necessity to gain style and person- 
ality. Major Fahnestock, the original owner, an eminent surgeon, died of pneu- 
monia in France while serving in line with the 301st Infantry, U. S. A., in 1918. 

The farm group on Mr. Schwab’s estate in the Alleghany Mountains is delight- 
fully British in character. The charm that, as is the case in the Fahnestock group, 
has been incorporated into the practicality of the buildings, is expressed particu- 

[ 342 ] 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


larly in the illustration which includes two haystacks in the composition. This 
might almost be a cottage group by one of the early English landscape men, lacking 
only the figures which were demanded by patrons of the art of that day. The 
site of Mr. Schwab’s farm is on two levels. Enclosing the upper farm yard are 
the farmer’s cottage, with its main entrance on the lower level, the stable, the 
lower floor of which opens on the lower farm yard, the slaughter and smoke house 
and the store house. There are attractive cottage gates leading to an orchard on 
one side of the court, to the sheepfold on another; and the main gates from the 
service road. To the north of the sheepfold is a large sheep yard; to the south of 
it in connection with the stables is the huge horse paddock. The lower farm yard 
is enclosed by the stables on the north and the kennels and piggery, connected with 
a wall centered by a drinking fountain, on the south. Both of these have large 
runs. The illustrations show the attractive treatment of the various hooded gates 
and retaining walls. The varying contours of the fruit trees and locusts add to 
the interest of the design, both in mass and line. Perhaps nothing more charming 


has been done in America than these farm groups, with their insinuation of a 


return to the land itself for sustenance. 


Photo. by John Wallace Gillies GROSVENOR ATTERBURY AND STOWE PHELPS, Architects 
MR. ARTHUR CURTISS JAMES’ FARM GROUP AT NEWPORT 


“Surprise Valley Farm” is one of the best known farm groups in the country. While only a mile and a half 
from the center of Newport it comprises a hundred and twenty-five acres, from which was provided the granite 
for the buildings. The general scheme is that of a Swiss Village, centering around a miniature common 


[ 343 ] 


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Photo. by John Wallace Gillies LEWIS COLT ALBRO, Architect 


FARM GROUP ON THE ESTATE OF DR. ERNEST FAHNESTOCK 


This group, which is on an estate in a secluded wooded section five miles back from Coldspring, in Putnam 

County, has been designed basically as an English work, though it has almost a touch of Normandy in the 

result, an impression given, probably, by the quoining on the stonework and by certain characteristics of the 

gables. A good deal of the charm, individually and collectively, of the buildings is contributed through the 
sense of movement in the roof lines 


ar 


Photo. by John Wallace Gillies CHARLES WELLFORD LEAVITT, Landscape Engineer 
BELL TOWER GROUP ON MR. CHARLES M. SCHWAB’S ESTATE 


The bell tower is a detail emphasizing the success of the designers in their general romantic treatment 

of the utilitarian group. The farm bell, which is used to mark the beginning and end of the working 

hours, is rung by a rope on the outside of the building. The illustration is of the bell tower and dove- 
cote in the horse barn group 


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CHAPTER FIFTEEN 


THE GITY HOUSE 


WHEN American domestic architecture is considered against the back- 
ground of the city there is a change in social atmosphere which has to be taken 
into recognition. In the country the owner may control this by placing his house 
at a sufficient distance from the community at large to have his background what- 
ever he wishes; the friendly impersonality of nature is easily substituted for the 
gaping criticism of the crowd in the street. In the city the fact is ever thrust home 
upon the owner of a big place that we are no longer a homogeneous people of 
common ancestry and the presence of a semi-alien lower class is something that is 
more and more consciously being taken into consideration in the planning of a city 
residence. The friendly and intimate and individualistic styles grow monthly more 
out of place in American city streets. Mentally a city home is becoming more and 
more a refuge from an unfriendly world. Fifty years ago a prominent citizen 
might erect a very gorgeous and rather bizarre place to show his fellow city dwellers 
how successful he had been, secure more or less in the feeling that the envy it 
aroused would be basically good-humored. There was then much less feeling of 
class distinction, both looking up and looking down, than we have to-day. There 
was respect for the successful rich man rather than envy and dislike. There is no 
desire to turn this chapter into a discussion of recent sociological tendencies in the 
United States; but the fact has to be faced that with the admission of enormous 
numbers of the Continental lower class we have admitted with them class feeling 
and class distinctions which still puzzle and irritate the native American when he 
first comes up against them. Consciously or not a recognition of this state of 
affairs has profoundly influenced recent city architecture. 

[ 350 ] 


OVE IEC ANS HOMELESS (OF TO; DA Y 


In the chapter upon the Italian house it was pointed out how Italian city 
architecture of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries was based upon precisely 
this attitude of mind. The Italian of that time was nearer the age of violence 
than we are and his city palaces were built to be capable of very genuine defense 
against mob attack, as well as being expressive of a desire to keep the inner life 
of the family, its intimacies and pleasures, remote and aloof from the passerby. 
Consequently, in all architectural detail they express that feeling of retirement into 
oneself, of separation from the outside world, of pulling up the mental drawbridges, 
of retiring into the circles of one’s intimates, which is the purpose of the modern 
city home, better than any other architectural style with which we are familiar. 
That is unquestionably the reason why houses founded on the Italian architectural 
styles of the palaces erected in the Italian cities during the Sixteenth and Seven- 
teenth Centuries are now among the most popular. Big, rectangular structures, 
monotone in color, simple to the point of severity, expressive of dominance, a 
self-chosen isolation, and the power of assured position, they are becoming each 
year more and more a principal feature of the city architectural landscape. 

The Italian type of house is the most forthright and unhesitating admission of 
this frame of mind. A more delicate but none the less definite saying of the same 
thing is accomplished by the French manner. Nothing can be more aristocrati- 
cally remote, nothing more unerringly expressive of the sense of abyss, than the 
French manner where it comes under the cold controlling hand of the classic 
feeling. There is the difference between the Italian and the French manner that 
there is between force and finesse, between, shall we say, Sforza and Talleyrand. 
The whole development of this isolation sense may be best appreciated by a con- 
sideration of our attitude towards French architecture. A scant generation ago 
the city was being placarded with the overblown, verbose, mildly vulgar struc- 
tures of the French Renaissance, cheerfully grinning at the surrounding world. 
Contrast these with the rigid decorum, the good taste, so unerring that it is almost 
cruel, of the patrician structures which we now trace from the French. 

Generally speaking, houses in the English manner are too ineradically based 
upon an aroma of hospitality to be as applicable as the Italian and the French to 
our present city mood. They rank, however, very close to these two in the 

opie} 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


minds of owners and architects. But 
that aspect of Georgian and Adam is 
now emphasized which most nearly 
corresponds to the mental moat and 
drawbridge of the other styles. One 
might say that the accepted style in 
city architecture deriving from Eng- 
lish ancestry is Adam in its iciest 
mood, its most upstage manner. Ital- 
ian, French and English say the same 
thing architecturally in three different 
tempos, with force and vigor, with aca- 
demic grace, with reticent precision. 
Of the seven styles discussed in 


previous chapters of the country house 


this leaves four unaccounted for, the 


THE BANDBOX Mediterranean, the Colonial and the 


An amusing example of the conversion of an old stable, S : 

opposite the J. Pierpont Morgan residence on East 36th two picturesques, Elizabethan and 

Street, into a week-end maisonette for the convenience of 

Mr. and Mrs. J. Kearsley Mitchell of Philadelphia when Modern. 
in New York 


The Mediterranean model 

applies only to the sub-tropical por- 
tion of our country and has obtained no foothold in the cities. The Colonial is 
hopelessly out of mood. The picturesque styles have here and there won an oc- 
casional triumph, a victory due to the personal genius of the erecting architect— 
all of which merely goes to show that general rules remain general. Even in ex- 
amples of this style a rigid restraint of the more flamboyant exterior detail is 
very obvious. 

There is another and entirely different mental factor which has to be taken 
into consideration in any discussion of the modern American city house. That is 
the change in social habit which has made the city residence of a family of less 
importance than the country estate. Two generations ago social and family life 
centered around the city house, where more than two-thirds of the year was passed 
in residence. Social usage then decreed both that the city house should express the 

ey ae 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


family’s social standing 
and that it should be 
adapted for the enter- 
taining that might be de- 
manded of it. Among 
the many things which 
are charged against the 
automobile, it is undeni- 
able that it has made the 
country house and coun- 
try life possible. Now- 
adays the city residence 
is really a habitation of 
convenience, sometimes 
no more than an over- 
night stopping place in 
the passage from one 
country spot to another. 
Large entertaining is no 
longer done in the home, 
either as a cause or an 
effect of the present ade- 


W. F. DOMINICK, Architect 


SUTTON PLACE 


View of the community gardens in Sutton Place through the dining room 
window of Mr. Henry Lorillard Cammann’s residence. The effective archi- 
tecture of Queensborough Bridge across the East River is seen through 
the window, which opens on a little balcony with steps leading to the garden 


quacy of our hotels and catering arrangements and their numerical increase. 


As this chapter is being written, plans have been filed in New York for the 


destruction of two mansions socially historic in New York, those of Vincent Astor 


and Mrs. Hamilton Fish, and the erection of apartments on their site. Comment 


upon this move in the New York Times summarizes the whole movement of which 


these sales were an indication. After speaking of the number of persons socially 


important who now reside in apartment houses on Park and Fifth Avenues, the 


article goes on: “The majority of the persons mentioned own fine country homes 


on Long Island, in Westchester county, and in New Jersey. The apartments in 


town are their temporary city homes and they combine all the luxuries and con- 


L 353 J 


AMIERDLCAIN HOMES \O:F TOs DIAw 


veniences of the elaborate private house without the care of maintenance, occu- 


pancy by caretakers when the family is away, and also freedom from taxation—in 


itself no small item when involving property rating anywhere from a hundred thou- 


sand to a million dollars. 


The willingness of Mrs. Vincent Astor and Mrs. 


Hamilton Fish to see their private homes give way to the modern type of cliff- 


WALKER & GILLETTE, Architects 


A CITY PROBLEM 


Stairway in the residence of Mr. Charles E. Mitchell 

at 933 Fifth Avenue. The circular staircase was first 

developed in the medizval fortress palace where 

economy of space was essential. The same restrictions 
exist in a New York City house 


dwelling domicile shows also how greatly 
sentimental values in the old city homes 
have been weakened. With the home 
life centered chiefly in the country the 
utility value of the town house is lessened 
and the new generation is apparently not 
shocked at the changes which a practical 
view deems necessary.” While this and 
other alterations of important building 
sites in New York City in all probability 
do not as definitely mark the passing 
of the private home in New York as 
newspaper writers seem to think, still 
they are unquestionably indicative of a 
changed point of view the influence of 
which is going to be more and more felt. 
The show place type of city house has 
certainly gone into the discard. They 
tend more and more to be on smaller 
scale, more easily and more inexpen- 
sively managed. Such places, for in- 
stance, as the Harvey Dow Gibson house, 
a residence exquisitely modeled to be on 
small scale throughout, are architectural 


straws showing the trend of inclination. 


A moderately small place, perfectly done, is the mood of the moment. 


There is one factor in human nature, however, which must be taken into con- 
[ 354 ] 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


sideration in the discussion of city houses as it had to be in a discussion of country 


places—that is the irrepressible urge towards the picturesque which will out. 


The compromise effected in the city between the ever present dread of exposing 


oneself too much to the street and the desire for an injection of the non-academic 


into one’s home has found expression in New York in the development of the 


backyard. Its changing from a place of 
flag stones, damp earth, and ailanthus 
trees into a thing of beauty was found 
impossible unless one could pick one’s 
neighbors and be surrounded by friends. 
This led, naturally enough, to the devel- 
opment of the community backyard or, 
in more dignified parlance, the commu- 
nity garden development of which New 
York City can to-day show several suc- 
cessful examples. Foremost in popular 
fame, though not in chronological se- 
quence, is the Sutton Place development 
associated with Mrs. Vanderbilt. Sut- 
ton Place is situated where Fifty-seventh 
and Fifty-eighth Streets overlook the 
Kast River in one of those curious spots 
characteristic of New York and presum- 
ably of all large cities, in which a 
locality has been forgotten in the build- 
ing development of the surrounding town 
and has relapsed into the condition best 
characterized in the language of previous 
generations as shabby genteel, retain- 


ing, because no one has thought to 


WALKER & GILLETTE, Architects 


ANOTHER EXAMPLE 


Hallway in the residence of one of the architects, Mr. 

A. Stewart Walker, 823 Lexington Avenue. This is 

another view of a very expert handling of the stair- 

case in a narrow city hall. The entrance to the resi- 
dence is seen on a subsequent page 


change it, certain picturesque qualities of an earlier time. Along come some indi- 
viduals or group of individuals who see the pictorial possibilities of the spot rather 
L 355 ] 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


4 


fgets 


ORNAMENTAL IRONWORK IN THE CITY HOUSE 


As a concomitant to the supreme simplicity of style preferred in the modern city house there is developing a 

tendency to use ironwork to supply decorative interest. These two photographs illustrate the work of Samuel 

Yellin, of Philadelphia, and the outer and inner doorway of the William McNair residence on East Seventy- 
ninth Street, a photograph of which appears on a later page in this chapter 


than the surroundings, buy up the property and, because of its comparatively low 
cost, are able, with economic success, to remodel existing buildings or erect new 
ones, based on a community garden and a conscious use of prearranged architec- 
tural attractiveness impossible to warring individual owners. There is another 
example of this sort of thing in Turtle Bay Gardens, in the East Forties between 
Second and Third Avenues, and other parts of town show traces of the same influ- 
ence, developments around Washington Square and one, the pioneer of the move- 
ment, on East Nineteenth Street. Whether these developments express a mood 
that will endure only the passing of events in the next two generations will prove. 

Perhaps no one illustration gives a better idea of the possibilities which Mrs. 
Vanderbilt had the foresight to see in Sutton Place than the view of Queens- 
borough Bridge through the medium of a window in the Henry Lorillard 
Cammann dining room. ‘This establishes the pictorial element immediately. Mr. 

(3564 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


Cammann’s residence was formerly a 
flat house, which has made a depth 
of seventy feet possible and, incident- 
ally, introduced some difficult problems 
in the way of getting light into the in- 
terior. The chief point in the plan- 
ning, however, was to take every ad- 
vantage possible of the panorama of the 
river, surveyed over a private mutual gar- 
den. Obviously the principal rooms 
would be located on the river front. The 
dining room illustrated is on the first or 


entrance floor, the glazed doors opening 


onto a balcony from which a few curved 


ITALIAN GATE 


steps lead into the garden. The illus- 


Wrought iron gateway in the handsome Italian resi- 


: : : dence of the late Isaac Guggenheim at Port Washing- 
tration gives a hint of the terrace and of ton. The design has exactly the suggestion of floridity 


the bridge, as has been stated. Miss ieee ap ee hae 

Anne Morgan remodeled numbers 3 and 5 and Mr. Joseph E. Willard, formerly 
our Ambassador to Spain, rebuilt Mr. Frank Griswold’s old property at number 9. 
Mr. Cammann’s residence is number 7, so that Miss Morgan and Mr. Willard are 
his immediate neighbors. Mrs. Vanderbilt’s residence is on a corner, as shown in 
one of the illustrations. Sutton Place is, actually, a little two-block thoroughfare 
running from East Fifty-seventh Street to East Fifty-ninth Street along Avenue A. 
A generation or so ago this was the center of a charming home district and to-day, 
as is steadily being realized, it has very special attractions. Sutton Square is a con- 
tinuation of Fifty-eighth Street. The homes of Dr. Stillman and Professor Joseph 
P. Chamberlain of Columbia University are on Sutton Square. The garden view 
should be visualized as looking South, over the same community garden which is 
seen through Mr. Cammann’s dining room, looking East. The illustrations from 
the residence of Mrs. Alice McLean, at 125 East 54th Street, are symbols of the 
other community developments which are giving certain streets on the East side of 
New York a new domestic value. 

[ 357] 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


In the discussion of city architec- 
ture it is entertaining to note that a minor 
facet of the new tendencies is a some- 
what sudden reawakening to the possibil- 
ities in wrought iron. As will be seen in 
the illustrations of Hunt Diederich’s 
work in metal, this provides another op- 
portunity of getting the individuality of 
the artist into the house. There has been 
a period in our architecture when he was 
arbitrarily shut out of it. We like to 
think that he is beginning to creep back, 


reOny ROR TON or in the case of such wild and merry 


Soran designed for Mey Chava Cary Ramer he geniuses as Hunt Diederich and Robert 

by Dna plod arches nercuuoy W. Chanler, to dance in, almost by sheer 
force. Gradually we are beginning to lose our fear of color and our suspicion of 
personality. It has become a convention to respond joyously to Czecho-Slovak 
pottery, Scandinavian linens, Moscow-Chauve Souris tea rooms, and early Ameri- 
can hook rugs for our 
informal and _ intimate 
houses or rooms. This 
should give the artists 
a loophole. Such vivid 
fellows as Winold Reiss 
(talented pupil of Franz 
Von Stuck) have been 
given the walls of res- 


taurants and hotels to 


play with. Chanler, with 


Cow ge of the Kingore Galleries 


his customary gesture, A FENDER SCREEN 


: : by Ep A screen designed for a very wide fireplace by Hunt Diederich, whose metal 
flings his multiplicity of silhouettes used for various utilitarian purposes are very well known. In 
. this stag fire screen the figures are cut out of sheet iron and finished in an 

Howers, birds, and beasts interesting patine characteristic of his work 


358] 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


sunrooms and 
But it is Died- 


erich who is the artist 


over 


screens. 


of such utilitarian neces- 
sities as lighting fixtures 
and andirons and fire- 
screens. He is audacious 


and fertile in invention, 


highly skilled in design 


and craftsmanship. He 
has tremendous force, 
smallest 


even in his 


pieces. He has a spirit 


Avenue home of Mrs. James Byrne. 
art in them than many a fabulously priced painting does not stand in the 


WINDOW GRATING 
One of the three window grates designed by Hunt Diederich for the Park 


The fact that these screens have more 


way of their humor or their ability to entertain 


of fun which is in the 


real Gothic mood. There are brains in his work. As has been said in the chapter 


on the Decorative Room, it is a privilege to be able to buy an artist’s brains. And 


Coantisy ; of the iors Galleries 
A COSSACK DANCE 


A screen by Hunt Diederich in which the figures are 

drawn on copper and cut out by hand. The individual 

genius of this artist has done much to revive an interest 
in wrought iron and other metals 


it is just as well to remember that all art 
did not die with the carvers of Colonial 
detail! 


the solarium is by Warren Davis, who 


In the Thomas Lamont house 


has decorated it with the very plastic 
dancing figures which he has managed 
to make so distinctive from the work of 
other artists who are more anemically in- 
Unfortu- 


nately the room photographs too unsatis- 


terested in the same subject. 


factorily for reproduction. 

The Lamont residence is one par- 
ticularly suited to the expression of an 
artist’s individuality because it is, itself, 
a free and highly sensitized version of 


one of the early English styles. It is 


[ 359 ] 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


Photos. by M. E. Hewitt DE SUAREZ & HATTON, Architects 


HOME OF MRS, ALICE McLEAN 


A garden view of Mrs. McLean’s town house at 125 East 54th Street. This 

is a very characteristic photograph of one of the most recent developments 

in New York City architecture. The point is the community backyard 
garden of which this is a very architectural example 


never stupid and never 
stereotyped, either in- 
side or out. Its enrich- 
ment is restrained to the 
taste of a day which 
would find the prototype 
of the style too overpow- 
ering in conjunction with 
New York’s congestion. 
The wall surfaces of 
plain grayish plaster are 
valuable as suggesting 
space and quiet. The 
heavy Gothic fireplace 
of ancient stone shown 
in one of the illustra- 
tions would seem ele- 
phantine and overornate 
in between huge tapes- 
tries and flanked with 
ornate Louis XIV chairs. 
The plain walls give 
it room; therefore it 


is monumental, not 


clumsy. It is a style which needs a firm hand. In the Lamont residence it is under 


perfect control. The house has been planned for handsome effects in lighting. In 


the morning there is a wealth of sunlight through the leaded casements of the bay 


windows noted in the exterior view, into the hall and great living room across the 


front of the house. The library is grave, dignified and handsome, as it should 


be. The little solarium, at the top of the house, is deliberately withdrawn from 


the Jacobean influence and pretends to be only an informal and pleasant breakfast 


and luncheon room. In harmony with the tendency of New York to reclaim the 


[ 360 ] 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


waste area of the back- 
yard, there is a garden, 
with a wall, a cloistered 
walk, a door and a plant- 
ed space between two 
gables. The architects 
have, evidently, a feel- 
ing for the city garden. 
Mr. A. Stewart Walker’s 
own house on Lexington 
Avenue has its main en- 
trance on the side street, 
through _ beautiful 
wrought iron gates, into 
a little garden court. 


This house is an altera- 


tion; and a very clever 
one. 

In Mr. Walker’s resi- 
dence the economy of 


space makes for original- HOUSE OF MRS, ALICE McLEAN 


1 7 This view and that on the opposite page show the effective manner in which 
ity of plan and detail. two New York City houses have been remodeled into a Sevententh Century 
Italian type. An example of the little house of the gentler Italian period 


His problem was a lot 
twenty-foot wide on the corner of a main street. The way he has run his stairway 
straight up against the party wall is shown in one of the illustrations. This is 
the stairway from the basement entrance hall to the living rooms on the first floor. 
It becomes a winding stair up to the bedroom floors. This practically eliminates 
the stairway, or, at any rate, removes it from its usual stellar position. The kitchen, 
following an idea which would have rendered our grandfathers aghast, fronts on 
the main street. The entrance hall is inviting and unusual, largely because of its 
low proportions. The furniture has been chosen discreetly and placed against a 
yellowish plaster wall. A very perfect small city house designed by these same 
esti) ae 


AMERICAN HOMES OF Sb Oe DRY 


architects is the Harvey Dow 
Gibson residence. Its chief 
beauty is the scale which has 
been maintained in every detail. 
This has necessitated the spe- 
cial designing of every chande- 
lier and fixture. The doorways 
in the house are particularly 
good. In the dining room a 
precise and aristocratic little 
Adam-Wedgwood mantel has 
been designed in the spirit of 
the Wedgwood candelabra it 
supports. A door to this room 
is in the Adam manner and has 
ee ee 2 little carved basket ornament 


as a central motive of the frame 


ak a 
ural Record 


Gielen aia while the panels to the doors 
MR. OTTO H. KAHN’S RESIDENCE themselves are painted in color 
At 1100 Fifth Avenue. The chaste and severe beauty of this i 
splendid, seample of the dialiad styles seed copesialy woes ang a ee 
out the house is a genuine feel- 
ing of personal interest and a unity which makes it a rather unique thing. 

The genuine beauty of the town house of Mrs. Willard D. Straight, with its 
handsome architectural backgrounds for early American and modern Spanish paint- 
ings’ and its sense of decorous hospitality, is in the greatest possible contrast to the 
palatial severity of the Otto H. Kahn residence and medieval exuberance of the 
home of Mr. Arthur Curtiss James. Mrs. Straight’s residence might have been 
built around the portrait of George Washington, so in key is it with the England 
that Washington knew. Yet it houses the famous big Zuloaga panels very becom- 
ingly, which might not have been expected from its British premises. Everywhere 
it has been handsomely done. Mr. Kahn’s house might have been conceived 
around his fine collection of Italian primitives. The portrait of Giuliano de’ 


[ 362 ] 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


Medici by Botticelli alone 
might have inspired such a 
building. The architecture of 
the residence derives from the 
early Sixteenth Century in 
Italy; Giuliano was murdered a 
century or so earlier in Florence 
(1478). It is an ideal style 


for a house of this size in a city 


of the heterogeneous character 
of New York, as has been said 
in an earlier chapter. Its effec- 
tiveness is based on broad prin- 
ciples of mass and light and 
shade. It is a style which pro- 


vides for imposing vistas, for 


views such as are_ possible 


on 


J. ARMSTRONG STENH 


across the inner court; which cums 


encourages the discreet use of MR. OTTO H. KAHN’S RESIDENCE 


The inner courtyard. The Kahn house is one of the few city 
residences on a grand scale which has been erected in New York 
in recent years. The stairs at the left lead onto the terrace 


rich furnishings, which pro- 
vides a reason for gorgeous 
bindings for valuable volumes. It is, in fact, the type of house that carries with 
it a definite responsibility. It is planned so thoroughly in the spirit of ancient 
Italy there is in its bearing a certain haughty insistence that nowhere shall its amour 
propre be offended. There can be no doubt that it is one of the most interesting 
examples of the large city house in New York. Its stern architectural aloofness 
will not be relished by those who are for more genial moods. To those who re- 
spond to it, it is welcome as a relief from the pretty and the chic. It offers, as 
has been said, magnificent opportunities in the way of a background for furnish- 
ings and pictures in scale with its size and its character. It is a style which makes 
no concessions; makes no welcome gesture. The entrance to it is formidable and 
characteristic. There is no abatement of formality outside of the living rooms. 
[ 363 ] 


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FURST OR 


Courtesy of the Architectural Record J. ARMSTRONG STENHOUSE, Architect 


MR. OTTO H. KAHN’S TOWN HOUSE 


This is the stairway to the tower from the second floor landing. It has the palatial scale and grandeur expected 
of the style and emphasizes the place which the central stone staircase holds in the scheme. The staircase is a 
legitimate architectural emphasis on the impregnable solidity of the building and its feeling for stonework 


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Photo. by M. E. Hewitt ALBERT JOSEPH BODKER, Architect 


RESIDENCE OF MR. AND MRS. OAKLEIGH THORNE 


At 783 Park Avenue. Another example of the neo-classic French manner which has been very successfully 

adapted to the narrow frontage of a New York street. It will be seen how allied this house is in spirit to the 

Adam, as has been noted in the illustration of Mrs. Hayward’s residence, Yet it is derived from the style which 
we know as Louis XVI. It has much of the quality of a little palace 


@© Lenygon & Morant H. VAN BUREN MAGONIGLE, Architect 


RESIDENCE OF MR. AND MRS. WILLIAM McNAIR 


The exterior of the McNair residence at 5 East 79th Street shows a simplification of the French Renaissance 

type which is almost English in its restraint. The detail around the windows and the baskets of flowers over 

them, carved in the stone itself, have that little flourish which we feel to be so gracefully and elegantly French. 
The house shows the fineness of proportion and the sensitiveness to line which is the real basis of the style 


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Photo. by Tebbs 


DELANO & ALDRICH, Architects 
HALL IN MRS. WILLARD D. STRAIGHT’S TOWN HOUSE 


This is a very effective Adam hallway which has been adapted to the necessarily restricted space of a city house. 
It is interesting to compare it with views of hallways of a somewhat similar spirit shown in Chapter Five, in 
which chapter are also included other interior views from this house 


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Photo. by John Wallace Gillies WALKER & GILLETTE, Architects 


MR. HARVEY DOW GIBSON’S TOWN HOUSE 


At 52 East 69th Street. This is one of the most consistent and most complete “little” houses in New York. 
Everything in it is scaled with the greatest care to the size of the building and the individual size of the rooms; 
there is about it everywhere a perfection of miniature elegance 


Photo. by M. E. Hewitt 


RESIDENCE OF MRS. WILLIAM K. VANDERBILT 


At 1 Sutton Place. Miss Anne Morgan’s residence is next door, in Number 8, at the left. Miss Elisabeth Mar- 
bury and Miss Elsie De Wolfe live at Number 13 in this famous reclaimed waste land of New York. The houses 
represent the Colonial English type which is really Adam 


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MURPHY & DANA, Architects 
TWO RESIDENCES ON SUTTON SQUARE 


The homes of Dr. and Mrs. Edgar Stillman, at Number 6, and of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph P. Chamberlain at Num- 
ber 8, Sutton Square, are designed as a unit and yet are completely separate. By allowing the plans to overlap 
each residence is given large living rooms on the second floor with a view of the water and garden 


Architects 


MURPHY & DANA, 


THE GARDEN FRONT OF NUMBERS SIX AND EIGHT 


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Photo. by John Wallace Gillies WALKER & GILLETTE, Architects 


RESIDENCE OF MR. THOMAS W. LAMONT 


At 107 East 70th Street. An example of one of the few Elizabethan Picturesque styles which has been suc- 

cessfully translated to a New York environment. It represents one of those occasional triumphs, a victory due 

to the personal talents of the architect, as remarked in the text. The style is most definitely Jacobean, with 
its exuberance tamed just enough to render it creditable in a New York locale 


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Photo. by M. E. Hewitt ALLEN & COLLENS, Architects 


MR. ARTHUR CURTISS JAMES’ TOWN HOUSE 


This great baronial hall is reminiscent of an architecture which takes precedence of Elizabeth but for which mod- 
ern nomenclature has provided no set title. It reflects in spirit the big monuments of English architecture of the 
late Fourteenth and early Fifteenth Centuries and might be called Medieval, Gothic or early Tudor. Its eccle- 
siastical insinuation is due to the fact that it is a style which has been preserved to us largely in our churches 


WALKER & GILLETTE, Architects 


RESIDENCE OF MR. NEWELL W. TILTON 


This living room in the town house of Mr. and Mrs. Tilton at 154 East 62nd Street, New York, is an example of 
the cleverness with which our architects are handling that momentous problem: how to get a big room into a 
typical narrow city house. The illustration shows a room two stories high which is the entire width of the residence 


JOHN RUSSELL POPE, Architect 
CONSERVATORY IN A WASHINGTON RESIDENCE 


This conservatory in the home of the late Mr. John R. McLean in Washington, D. C., has been 

conceived and executed in the spirit of the very late Italian, providing one of the best back- 

grounds possible for the growing of flowers. The Neptune was executed from the architect’s 
sketches by Ulysses Ricci, a young Italian sculptor 


CHAPTER SIXTEEN 


THE DECORATIVE ROOM 


AFTER fifteen chapters devoted to the exterior, the interior, the gardens, 
and the outbuildings it seems as if there should be very little left to say about any 
aspect of American homes of to-day. There is however. Human nature being 
what it is, provision always has to be made, in architecture as in any other human 
problem, for the variant, the impulse which will out and which will not conform 
to routine. Why is it, that once or twice a year even the soberest of us will do 
ourselves up in fancy costume and, as if released by the ritual of that act from 
the restraining contaminations of everyday life, cavort around a ballroom in a 
manner that our good sense tells is both absurd and ridiculous and yet all the while 
derive an appreciable quantity of very real amusement from the fact? Ever since 
we have any record of domestic architecture there has been an urge, after the code 
was entirely perfected, after proportions had been set up and scale decided upon, 
to take a little portion of the house apart from the scene and play with it. 

The hanging gardens of Babylon probably originated because some restless 
member of the king’s harem got tired of the sun-baked brick regularity of her 
corner of the palace. As a matter of fact, up till now this feeling has more or 
less generally expended itself upon the gardens. When the architects of the Italian 
villas first discovered that they could play with water they seem to have 
gone fey inventing Coney Island tricks by means of which unfortunate visitors 
were drenched with water from overturning urns, hidden orifices, sun dials, grilles 
and so on. French and English taste never seemed to see as much hilarity in an 
unexpected sprinkling as did the Italians; and water surprises, while they exist, 
were never overwhelmingly popular in either of these countries. When an 

[ 386 ] 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


Englishman of the last century wanted to be original, however, he also turned to 
the garden, and he dropped therein a building, a summer house, a gazebo, or a 
lookout tower in a style that he felt was picturesque and hoped was Chinese. The 
so-called rustic summer house, with which we are all familiar, is mentally a direct 
descendant from Sir William Chambers’ Chinese pagoda at Kew. 

Even in Colonial times, however, there developed a feeling that certain rooms 
deserved an enrichment of treatment, a handling as if they were a focal point of 
attention rather than as if they were part of an architectural whole. The first 
decorative rooms in modern consciousness were created during the Colonial era 
when some daring housekeeper first had the courage to cover the walls with that 
very startling and supremely decorative block wall paper which we still cherish as 
one of the most effective of the Colonial traditions. The minute any room in a 
house, by reason of something individual and characteristic only of itself, stands 
apart from the rest of the structure and makes so distinct an appeal because of 
some artistic quality of its own that it is remembered as a distinct thing, it is a 
decorative room in the sense of this chapter. 

In a decorative room the architectural consciousness of the house does not 
intrude. It is properly as detached a unit as if it were in a museum. To explain 
further, we might refer back to the H. H. Rogers Italian villa at Southampton 
discussed in a previous chapter. There are some rooms therein, specifically the 
breakfast loggia, with the walls most effectively frescoed in the Italian manner, 
which are not considered as decorative rooms within the meaning of this chapter, 
inasmuch as they are a part, and a very conscious and effective part, of the 
architectural scheme of the whole building. The decorative room proper is a work 
of art rather than of architecture. 

As art they cannot be codified and dissected and no attempt is made to do 
either in this chapter which is, essentially, in the nature of an appendix to its 
predecessors. The photographs attached hereto are those of some of the most suc- 
cessful attempts at creating a decorative room with textiles, with stonework, or 
with painting which have come to our notice. The two photographs of Mrs. 
William Hayward’s city house show a boudoir with walls hung with taffeta and 
a reception room planned as a foreground to tapestries. Both of these are very 

387d 


AMERICAN: HOMES O1F | TO2D Ag 


effective as decorative units. A room based on the use of wall paper as a decorative 
center is seen in the photograph of the Sabin place at Southampton. The Italian 
manner of fresco decoration which we casually refer to as Pompeian may be 
observed in the breakfast room of the Hanna house and in the garden loggia from 
the Deering place at Miami. Another room in the Hanna house has been lined 
with marble in the Italian manner. Whether these rooms pass the pragmatic test 
only their owners could tell you. Looked at in a photograph they are beautiful 
and effective. 

Probably the most generally successful decorative rooms are those in which 
the background is supplied by an artist; something that has been given over to an 
artist to play with. It was a happy thought, for instance, to turn over to the talent 
of the late Howard Cushing, the small oval sitting room illustrated from the resi- 
dence of Mrs. Willard Straight. It is quite evident that it has been delightfully 
done, the delicately French Chinese renderings of the panels maintained in a high 
key in colors suited to the canary woodwork. Knowing Mr. Cushing’s gift for 
pleasant color harmonies, and the taste with which he was able to express his feel- 
ing for decoration, it is a simple matter to visualize the charm of this little ladies’ 
dressing room. In the mural decoration shown of Mrs. Whitney’s bedroom, by 
Robert W. Chanler, we have one of our pioneers in this work in America at his best. 
The Chanler screens are known to everyone who is at all in touch with the art of 
this country. Mr. Chanler made an impression in this form of art even at the 
famous Armory Show, which introduced the cubists and other wild ones to New 
York. Which was a good deal of an accomplishment. In Mrs. Whitney’s deco- 
ration he is in a soberer mood than we are accustomed to find him nowadays, 
though in an interesting one, with his formal perspectives and his opposing phan- 
tasmagoria of mille fleur foreground and the pageantry of richly caparisoned 
knights. In the decoration for the Coe breakfast room the artist has allowed him- 
self greater liberty. Here he is more the familiar Chanler, undeterred by any 
sense that he must be architectural. He uses his elks and bison as an enrichment 
against an idealized Rocky Mountain scene with the zest and imagination for 
which he has gained so much respect from his fellows. 

One of the most promising signs of our artistic development in this country 

L 388 ] 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


is, perhaps, the fact that we are beginning to give our artists a chance. For a 
while the policy of building houses which absolutely excluded everything but an 
ancient floral or fruit or farmyard painting from its rooms seemed to sound the 
death knell of the painters. Recently there has been a tendency to take advantage 
of their imagination by turning over a room to them to develop in its entirety. 
Most artists have, themselves, charming homes. Which is largely why they get 
driven out of them, ultimately, by the rich; as witness the rise of rents in the 
direction of Washington Square and the difficulty of obtaining proper studios to 
paint in. It is because they have the ability to create an atmosphere out of them- 
selves, with frequently very little to do it on, that they give something to their 
homes, whether in the city or country, that others see and want to acquire. The 
point is that, if they have the vision and knowledge to create a charming back- 
ground for themselves, they have the vision and knowledge to create it for others. 
A certain number of persons are coming, as we have said, to realize this; not 
enough, but a few. Gardner Hale, an artist of most aristocratic and beautiful ideas, 
has had an opportunity to do some delightful rooms. The late Paul Thevanez, a 
young artist with a most amusing line of thought and very smart themes, was per- 
mitted to do very witty and skilful murals in certain residences before an untimely 
death cut short his development. Sert, the Spanish painter, overwhelmed New 
York with the exhibition at the Wildenstein Galleries of the huge murals which 
he had painted for the Cosden residence at Palm Beach. Claggett Wilson was 
turned loose in the music room of Mrs. Alfred Rossin in New York to provide a 
background for the modern music which is the preference of Mrs. Rossin. It is a 
very fine thing to do and, frankly, a rather magnificent privilege; that of inviting 
an artist to leave his skill, his brains and his imagination on your walls. For it 
is the artist’s imagination, his personal and unique way of seeing things and of feel- 
ing them, that is the really precious thing about him. Of course, the point is, to 
be careful in the selection of your artist. A stupid artist will do stupid things. 
And a stupid mural is inferior to the blankest of blank spaces in artistic content. 
At least the blank space will have its shadows, its lights and shades. The murals 
which we speak of with enthusiasm are in not a single point of design or thought 
allied to the languishing females sitting squashily on comfortably disposed clouds 
[ 389 ] 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


which were wont to an- 
noy the ceilings and side 
panels of an earlier gen- 
eration. 

The two illustrations 
of as many sides of Mrs. 
Rossin’s music room in 
her town house on East 
Sixty-eighth Street are 
delightful examples of 
what can be accom- 
plished by faith; faith 
in an artist. Claggett 


Photo. by M. E. Hewitt 


Wilson was allowed to 


MRS. WILLIAM HAYWARD’S CITY HOME : ‘< ° 

shut himself up in this 

This attractive boudoir is loosely hung with gray silk and the chairs are 

upholstered in oyster color, relieved with cochineal. The painting by Nattier room with two assistants 
over the sofa is in his customary harmony with these colors 


for a year or more and 
work out his own salvation. Mrs. Rossin herself never saw the room until the day of 
its informal opening to some of the artist’s friends. Mr. Wilson and his collaborators 
were, therefore, free from tedious interruptions, from waste of energy and the time 
thrown away on step-by-step explanations. As a result Mrs. Rossin has the best of 
everything that the artist has to give. In the least vulgar sense in the world, she has 
her money’s worth. So that her courtesy to the artist has a very practical and com- 
monsense result. It was like being shut up in a very comfortable monastic chamber, 
with the freedom to create any sort of an atmosphere. The reward is a graceful and 
imaginative modern version of the spirit of the early Florentines with esthetic and 
engaging fancies in the allegorical panels, in the beautifully drawn details, in the 
introduction here and there of architectural motives. The room is designed with 
remarkable success as a whole and keyed to the ideal of providing a genuine work 
of art that would, at the same time, remain quite definitely a background. It has 
its grand moments and its precious moments. But it is always in scale and never 
out of character with the purpose for which it has been designed. It is the most 

[ 390 ] 


AMERICAN HOMES OF TO-DAY 


complete work that Clag- 
gett Wilson has yet ac- 
complished. 

While Robert W. 
Chanler is best known 
for his screens he has 
decorated rooms for a 
number of important 
houses, including a 
Greek frieze for Mrs. 
William Temple Emmet, 
and rooms for Mrs. John 
Jay Chapman and Mr. 


ARTHUR S. VERNAY, Decorator 
Lloyd Warren. In the 
MRS. WILLIAM HAYWARD’S CITY HOME 
screens for Mrs. Harry Mrs. Hayward’s town house at 1051 Fifth Avenue is rich in fine tapestries, 
. 5 : books and art. This is a detail of the reception room. The tapestries are 
Payne Whitney s studio two of a set of three great Louis XV Beauvais picture cloths from the 
J. Pierpont Morgan Collection 


which we are illustrat- 
ing, he uses an adaptation of old tapestry ideas, illustrating ancient wars and ancient 
pageantry.- Picturesque knights and legendary castles are modeled in relief and 
touched with gold, against a background of handsome depth. In many of Mr. Chan- 
ler’s designs the effect of gold is given by the manipulation of ivory colored paint to 
give the sense of gold, the gold being used very slightly or not at all. In Mr. Joseph 
B. Thomas’ big living room in his house just West of Mr. Chanler’s, on East Nine- 
teenth Street, in the famous colony of brick and green shutters and bay trees, Mr. 
Chanler has designed a series of figures representing the characters of a Passion Play 
given by the Yale Players. He had the problem here of bringing his modern work 
into proper relation with an old Italian triptych over a stone mantel. He has had 
more freedom in the little rathskeller in Mr. Thomas’ house where his famous 
series of historic polo panels have their being. Here the artist has had to suit his 
panels to such antipathetic influences as an Italian court outside and brick walls 
and Virginia hams swung from the crossbeams inside. At first he tried the effect 
of white figures on blue grounds with little success. Finally he accepted the dusky 
ool 


AMERIGAN HOMES? OF TVOeD AY 
4 Weis, — blackness of the old 


beams themselves and 
set his ivory figures in re- 
lief against a similar inky 
hue. In the handling of 
the subjects the artist 
shows his feeling for 
ornament and his ability 
to express motion in dec- 
orative terms. In these 
panels are Arabs, with a 
mosque in the back- 
ground, Indians with 
their caravans, the Rus- 
ts sians, Japanese, Chinese 
and Americans — all 
playing the game—the 
latter with the straight 
lines of the pier at Nar- 


ragansett cleverly brok- 


on. OK : a DELANO & ALDRICH, Archit 
M, EB, Hewitt om Arene'S en by an ornamental 


RESIDENCE OF MR. AND MRS. BERTRAM G. WORK 


At Oyster Bay, Long Island. ‘The delicately fantastic painting is done 

directly on the walls in the true fresco manner by Gardner Hale. It is, of 

course, the charming sort of French thing that is inspired by an admiration 
of oriental art handled with occidental sophistication 


frieze formed of ladies’ 
parasols. Mr. Chanler 
paints on both wood and 
canvas and will work for a month to get a ground exactly right for his figures, always 
striving for a beautiful skin or peau. In the end he obtains a sense of lacquer, 
either flat, as when he works on canvas, or a high luster, when he works on wood. 

- Abram Poole, an artist of much taste and a feeling for wall spaces, is doing 
a series of panels for Mr. Marshall Field’s new home. So it might seem that the 
artist is coming into the home once more. There can be no just blame of the archi- 
tects for their elimination of the gold-framed easel picture from the houses they 
design. It was a very sensitive New York artist who once remarked to me that 

[ 392 | 


ates CeAT Nem Osi KeseeQ Hel Om DeAqY 


he was certain that no- 
body in America cared 
anything about art. “If 
they did they would 
never be able to eat in 
dining rooms with gold 
frames sticking out of 
the walls like sore 
thumbs.” Gold frames 

are dificult. They fret 
even the artists who put i 
them on their pictures. | 
But artists have to live, 
and sell paintings with 
gold frames on them. If 
we are coming to a sense, 
as Mrs. Rossin and 
others have come, that 


the way to eliminate the 


gold frame is to put the 


Gillies CROSS & CROSS, Architects 


THE CHARLES H. SABIN HOME 


wall and build the room A detail of the breakfast room in the Sabin residence at Southampton show- 

5 ing the interesting use of scenic wallpaper in combination with a restrained 

around it, then we are ar- little English mantel, English furniture, and a decorative screen in the 
Chinese manner, all of which blend into a thoroughly successful whole 


painting directly on the 


riving at a very real ad- 

justment of the relation of the artist and the architect. The Decorative Room, 
therefore, may prove one of our finest future contributions to the modern home 
because it allows for originality. The Decorative Room might become the legiti- 
mate playroom of the lady of the house, her retreat from the architect and the 
interior decorator, where she could try out her own amusing schemes, with, per- 
haps, some young artist to help her. Her theme could be delicate, fantastic, mod- 
ern and feminine, based on a water color by Marie Laurencin, or one of Benito’s 
tiny and adventurous black cats. Or she might start her room on a McEvoy water! 

L 393 J 


a 


WALKER & GILLETTE, Architects 
RESIDENCE OF MRS. L. C. HANNA 
This is the breakfast room in the home of Mrs. Hanna, which faces Wade Park, in Cleveland, Ohio, It is painted 


in the manner of the old masters, directly on the plaster. The views through the arched openings of the ter- 
races and gardens are in character with the decoration. The floor is also in pleasing ornamental relation 


ARR 


2 TRAITEMENT IR. 


© M. E. Hewitt PAUL CHALFIN, Architect 


MR. JAMES DEERING’S RESIDENCE 


The garden loggia of Mr. Deering’s residence at Miami, Florida. The walls are painted on canvas in the manner 
of Albertolli, an authority on decoration in Milan in 1790. The architectural landscapes which they enframe are 
French. The Old World sumptuousness of “Vizcaya” is told in an earlier chapter 


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